
»r 



onditions and Needs 



of 



lo^va Rural ScKools. 



1. Country School Statistics. 

2. The Country School Problem. 

3. Present Status of Consolidation. 

4. One Phase of the Teacher Problem. 

5. School Buildings and Grounds. 



JOHN r. RIGGS, 



Superintendent of Pviblic Inotruction. 



1905. 



DES MOINES: 

B. M0EPI1Y, STiTE PRINTBB 



Conditions and Needs 



lo^wa Rural ScKools. 



1. Country School Statistics. 

2. The Country School Problem. 

3. Present Status of Consolidation. 

4. One Phase of the Teacher Problem. 

5. School Buildings and Grounds. 



JOHN r. RIGGS, 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

1905. 



DBS MOINES: 

B. MTJRPHY, STATE PRINTKR. 






MAY 17 1905 
D< of D. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It was our purpose to secure accurate and complete reports 
from every rural school in Iowa, showing the enrollment, aver- 
age daily attendance, length of the school year and salaries of 
teachers; but many secretaries found it impossible to furnish 
the data asked for, but 10,019 schools reporting out of a total of 
12,521. By reference to Table No. I the number of rural schools 
maintained in each county may be seen, as also the number of 
schools reporting. 

While the statistics are incomplete, they are sufficiently full 
to show conditions as they actually exist in this State. In 
Tables III, IV and V, showing average daily attendance, frac- 
tions of less than one-half are omitted, while fractions of one- 
half or over are counted as units. 

This report is issued in the hope of awakening greater public 
interest in the rural schools, to the end that country children 
may be gathered in better schoolhouses, trained by better teach- 
ers and have that training extend through a longer school year 
without the interruptions now so common in the frequent change 
of teachers. 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. I. 



Counties. 



(^ 
^ 



m a 
<u o 

"a 



^ Si ■ 



■2c« 



O B3 

a5 



a§ 






cog 



Si 

p a 



fl 


in 




o 


0) 












T) 




0) 


a 




m 


83 


.13 








C 


a 


C 








J2 


a 


tu 


+^ 




a 


1) 
o 


53 


pi 


a 


.^ 


^ 


■^ 



Adams 

Audubon 

Adair 

Appanoose . . . 
Allamakee . , 

Benton , 

Buchanan 

Boone 

Butler 

Black Hawk . . 
Buena Vista. . 

Bremer 

Cass 

Clayton 

Carroll 

Chickasaw . . . 

Crawford 

Calhoun 

Cerro Gordo . 

Clay 

Clinton 

Cherokee 

Clarke 

Cedar 

Dallas 

Dickinson . . . 

Davis 

Des Moines. . . 

Decatur 

Delaware .... 

Dubuque 

Emmet 

Fayette 

Floyd 

Franklin 

Fremont . . . 

Greene 

Grundy 

Guthrie 

Hamilton .... 

Harrison 

Hancock 

Hardin 

Henry 

Howard 

Humboldt 

Ida 

jowa 

Jackson 

jasoer 

J eff ersoii 



104 
104 
137 
118 
126 
168 
132 
145 
135 
140 
128 

97 
140 
167 
134 
109 
166 
133 
134 
123 
157 
132 
102 
133 
138 

72 



111 
130 
124 
74 
175 
113 
137 
117 
136 
119 
142 
133 
145 
122 
129 
97 
98 
103 
99 
135 
138 
177 
92 



104 
119 
88 
45 
125 
132 
121 
78' 
105 
68 
72 
118 
15] 
6^ 
51 
77 

m 

117 

lis 

157 

117 

86 

12S 

IOC 

24 

84 

62 

5^ 

96 

115 

67 

123 

111 

117 

lOf' 

102 

98 

129 

126 

66 

108 

76 

87 

9f 

» 

98 

121 

77 

120 

91 



44 
70 
90 
14 
11 
63 
65 
61 
52 
69 
21 
22 
64 
77 
24 
23 
51 
101 
67 
69 
63 
85 
45 
89 
7!« 
14 
10 
30 
25 
50 
4!t 
44 
54 
63 
92 
24 
60 
50 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. I— Continued. 



Counties. 



3 ID 



ID o 



. St ai 



JB 



1^ 






Js 



Sog 



pig 



ai'd 

m 18 J 



So* 



a§ 



Johnson 

Jones 

Keokuk 

Kossuth 

Lee 

Linn 

Louisa . . . 

Lucas 

Lyon 

Madison 

Mahaska 

Marion 

Marshall 

Mills 

Mitchell 

Monona 

Monroe 

Montgomery. .. 

Muscatine 

O'Brien 

Osceola 

Page 

Palo Alto 

Plymouth , 

Pocahontas ... 

Polk 

Pottawattamie 

Poweshiek 

Ringgold 

Sac 

Scott 

Shelby 

Sioux 

Story 

Tama 

Taylor 

Union 

Van Buren 

Wapello 

Warren 

Washington 

Wayne , 

Webster 

Winnebago ... 
Winneshiek. . . 

Woodbury 

Worth , 

Wright 

Total 



155 
130 
125 
211 
101 
167 

78 

90 
127 
134 
135 
135 
128 

81 

89 
142 

92 
103 

87 
133 

90 
118 
122 
170 
130 
142 
226 
183 
123 
130 
1C3 
132 
170 
• 133 
167 
118 
108 
109 

96 
130 
123 
117 
174 

85 
137 
178 

88 
128 

12,521 



118 
115 
111 
178 
91 
130 
74 
53 
86 
72 
94 
65 
121 
79 
61 
132 
92 
96 
57 
128 
65 
115 
91 
131 
125 
129 
155 
106 
117 
126 
69 
76 
159 
102 
142 
74 
101 
98 
87 
90 
122 
86 
168 
79 
96 
156 
84 
113 



10,019 



114 1,016 



650 



37 
58 
45 
107 
28 
51 
45 
' 21 
21 
60 
43 



4,947 



865 



1 
34 
50 

5 
26 

9 
40 
17 
28 
107 

3 

4 
21 
63 
43 
139 

"7 
7 

19 
3 

12 
3 
5 
3 



2 

82 
3 
12 

1,958 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. II, 



County. 


Number of Districts 
Having a School 
Enumeration of: 


Number of Schools Enrolling Fall Term . 


•d 
O 


o 
o 


O 


o 


ui 
O 


■o 

(N 


i 

o 


« 


t-^ 


00 


ea 


d 


„■ 


pi 


2 


■« 


irf 







|He- 


1 

1 


3 

1 
1 


6 

5 
6 

7 

4 

16 


6 
18 
17 

1 
S 

16 


5 
10 
21 
10 
10 

23 


59 
30 
48 
45 
25 

56 










1 
8 
3 


2 
4 
4 


3 
3 
4 

1 
1 

7 
6 
1 
9 
8 
3 
3 

2 
2 
4 
3 
11 
6 
3 
5 
9 
1 
3 
9 

6 

■■3 

1 
5 
2 

"7 
7 
4 

8 
9 
3 

2 

1 
3 

1 
7 
6 
3 

8 

7 

4 
4 

1 


4 
4 
10 
2 


4 
1 

8 

1 


6 
3 

8 

■■3 

6 
11 
5 
9 
8 
9 
2 

6 
2 
5 
2 

8 
7 
6 
8 
4 
1 
8 
10 

6 

■'i 

5 
1 
5 

2 

1 

9 
6 
8 
5 

6 
10 
5 

10 
5 
7 
3 
4 
7 
5 

9 
6 

2 
5 
6 


4 

1 

2 
1 

6 
6 
6 
» 

7 
5 
4 

9 
4 
4 
4 
8 
9 
5 

13 
7 
3 
4 

11 

5 
1 

"'i 

3 

5 
3 

5 
11 
5 
3 

7 
4 
10 

9 
4 
5 
4 

8 

7 
6 

8 

7 

3 
3 
1 


31 

22 

32 

9 

2 

34 
40 
22 
35 
37 
19 
9 

39 
18 
11 
25 
32 
21 
25 
33 
34 
8 
24 
34 

20 
2 

10 
11 

17 
21 
16 

23 

35 
25 

18 
26 

31 
18 
47 

28 
11 
23 
20 
17 
22 
20 

34 
31 

11 
39 
15 


49 












22 




1 




2 


35 






38 






1 
4 














10 






2 
8 
2 
4 
2 
3 
2 

4 

2 
4 

2 

1 
2 
8 

"i 

"4 

3 


4 
2 

■"2 

' "i 

1 

1 

6 

'2 
4 
1 
3 
3 

■3 
1 

1 
1 


1 
2 
3 

4 
3 
3 
8 

4 
2 

1 
2 
4 

10 
6 

' 3 

"4 

5 


2 
5 

■"i 

3 

1 
3 
3 
5 
10 
3 
2 
6 
1 
3 
2 

3 
3 


11 

8 
2 
5 
5 

■3 

4 

2 
10 
2 

8 
10 
10 
4 
5 
1 
3 
7 

2 


3 
5 
2 
7 
7 
2 
2 

4 
2 
3 
2 
5 
8 
8 
10 
12 
4 
4 
6 

2 
2 
1 
3 
3 
4 
2 

1 

5 
15 
5 
3 

4 

3 
3 

5 
2 
3 
6 
6 
5 
5 

5 
3 

"2 
2 


6 
6 

8 
8 
6 
4 
4 

1 
4 
6 
4 
7 
5 
4 

10 
4 
3 
1 

15 

5 
4 

1 

"i 

5 
5 

1 

5 
3 

8 

7 

1 
6 
6 

6 
] 
5 
3 
4 
5 
4 

4 
2 

6 
8 
4 


8 
7 
5 
9 
6 
5 
2 

5 
6 
3 
3 
10 
6 
5 
6 
8 
3 
9 
7 

6 
1 
3 
1 
3 

"5 

5 

I 

5 

9 
6 
10 

7 
3 
3 
5 
4 
2 
2 

9 
12 

1 
4 
6 


24 






31 


Boone 




I 
3 
2 
2 


12 
10 
9 
5 
6 

10 
4 
9 
7 

12 
20 
24 
12 
14 
4 
15 
12 

18 
3 
5 
4 
6 
4 
2 

9 

4 

10 
14 
12 

11 
11 

7 

5 
4 
19 
6 
7 
5 
6 

7 
4 

5 

7 

7 


10 
10 
13 
16 
4 

20 

13 

1 

2 

28 

25 

20 

25 

21 

5 

16 

14 

8 
4 
4 
10 
5 
3 
4 

22 

17 
25 
24 
12 

17 
15 
10 

18 
6 
14 
15 
14 
13 
16 

22 

14 

7 
16 

7 


18 
13 
19 

12 
11 

23 
7 

15 
21 
20 
21 
19 
24 
25 
7 
16 
22 

14 
3 

18 
4 

8 
10 

8 

14 

11 
27 
25 
16 

23 
17 

8 

26 
9 
22 
12 
8 
14 
12 

29 
18 

16 
16 
4 


79 
27 
74 
33 
38 

54 
104 
27 
36 
46 
35 
43 
92 
38 
28 
40 
46 

33 
3 
65 
49 
42 
46 
81 

23 

68 
41 
48 
42 

44 
39 

57 

85 
42 
44 
48 
61 
65 
43 

47 
86 

45 
54 
59 


33 


Butler 




33 


Black Hawk 




26 


Buena Vista 




12 


Bremer 

Cass. 


2 


15 
32 


Clayton 


1 


3 
3 

2 

9 

7 

1 
8 


19 




9 


Crawford 




16 


Calhoun 

Cerro Gordo 


1 


22 
15 


Clay 


1 


20 
43 


Cherokee . 




18 






13 


Clarke' 


1 


2 
3 

3 


41 


Cedar '. 


17 


Dallas 




33 






3 






1 
1 
2 
2 
4 

4 

1 
9 
3 
3 

2 
2 
3 

2 

1 
7 
6 
1 
1 
5 


49 












1 


2 


24 


Decatur 




1 
1 

6 

1 

"2 

3 
2 

1 
3 
5 


1 
1 
3 

"i 

2 

"i 
"■3 






27 






2 
3 

1 
4 
3 


3 
1 

1 

2 
2 
2 


2 

2 

3 
4 
7 
3 

4 
4 
2 

2 
2 

' '2 
3 
3 
4 

2 
4 

2 
3 

1 


6 
5 

1 

2 
5 
3 
2 

4 
5 
9 

2 

■ 'e 
2 
2 
4 
5 

4 
4 

3 

6 
2 


29 


Dubuque 


1 


43 


Emmet 


2 


Fayette 




36 




1 
2 


14 


Franklin 


16 


Fremont . . . 


38 
30 


Greene 


2 
2 

1 

1 

1 
7 
4 

'l 

1 

1 
1 

1 
3 


4 
4 
2 

2 
1 
2 
2 
1 
3 
5 

1 
3 

3 
2 

1 


Grundy 




24 


Guthrie 

Hamilton 




33 
45 


Harrison 

Hancock 


i 


33 
11 


Hardin 


21 






35 


Howard 




21 






18 


Ida 




17 


Iowa 




2 


39 


Jackson 




23 
31 




1 


3 

1 


Jefferson 


45 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. II— CcTntinuhd. 



Number of Schools Enrolling Winter Term. 


Number of Schools Enrolling Spring Term. 























. , 








, 













ai 

























« 


S 






















^ 


« 


Ol 



























a 



























u 






















■♦* 


'OS. 


u 










. 












** 


O.C3 


o 















CQ 


CO 


■J 


10 


CO 


.g^ 


















e* 


K3 


-^ 


10 


50 


»«• 


«5 


<£ 


r-^ 


<x> 


oi 




'^ 












10 


CO 


t^ 


00 


oi 




'"' 


f.^ 




'"' 










1 






2 


3 


6 


2 


4 


4 


24 


67 


1 




2 


4 


2 


3 


2 


2 


9 


2 


8 


28 


39 


' i 




2 


"i 




2 


4 


6 


2 


4 


4 


20 


23 




"i 


3 


1 


3 


3 


8 


4 


6 


2 


3 


10 


20 


1 


"2 


2 


5 


"4 


3 


3 


4 


8 


3 


6 


24 


47 


"i 


3 


4 


S 


3 


4 


4 


7 


8 


9 


5 


31 


31 




■"i 

4 


1 
4 


1 

1 

6 


4 


"i 
5 


4 
2 

4 


6 
2 

5 


2 

7 


2 
3 

6 


8 
3 

4 


13 
5 

43 


55 
19 

30 








1 
1 

4 


"2 
5 


"i 

5 


3 
1 

10 


"2 
10 


8 
5 


3 
3 

6 


3 
1 

4 


20 
12 

31 


29 










17 


1 


8 


1 


5 


30 


2 


1 


2 


1 


3 


5 


5 


1 


12 


7 


10 


34 


49 


2 


4 


5 


4 


4 


3 


10 


7 


8 


15 


10 


29 


32 


3 


2 


5 


1 


1 


4 


6 


9 


5 


7 


4 


39 


44 


2 


3 


6 


4 


4 


2 


4 


6 


8 


7 


12 


29 


39 


1 


3 


5 


1 


5 


5 


5 


5 


11 


4 


13 


30 


48 


4 


2 


6 


4 


7 


7 


5 


11 


6| 2 


9 


30 


35 


3 


ji 


3 


4 


6 


10 


9 


7 


4 


5 


6 


46 


20 


5 


4 


3 


2 


6 


4 


7 


13 


8 


6 


6 


32 


25 




1 


1 




4 


2 


1 


2 


3 


4 


9 


25 


22 


1 


1 




1 


1 


6 


4 


6 


4 


3 


4 


24 


16 


' 'i 


1 




"i 


2 


1 


3 


4 


3 


4 


8 


10 


18 


a 


2 




2 


4 


8 


6 


6 


2 


3 


3 


18 


20 


4 


3 


5 


1 


2 


4 


7 


7 


6 


4 


7 


31 


38 


5 


3 


5 


4 


4 


3 


7 


6 


6 


5 


6 


25 


27 


4 


4 


2 


3 


4 


1 


7 


3 


6 


3 


10 


30 


76 


5 


2 


1 


5 


3 


3 


3 


4 


7 


1 


7 


32 


48 


4 


2 


2 




4 


7 


2 


9 


4 


4 


2 


16 


16 


6 


3 


5 


5 


5 


4 


4 


5 


5 


4 


6 


11 


• 9 


2 




1 






1 


1 


8 


2 


6 


4 


19 


27 


2 


2 




4 


2 


2 


2 


5 


7 


8 


6 


16 


14 


1 


' '2 


1 


"3 


"e 


5 


1 


11 


6 


9 


8 


35 


43 


8 


4 


"3 


4 


8 


5 


9 


10 


11 


10 


10 


30 


22 


7 


2 


6 


5 


4 


11 


7 


7 


6 


4 


6 


22 


22 


7 


6 


10 


8 


3 


11 


9 


8 


9 


8 


5 


19 


15 


4 


3 




7 


6 


6 


6 


6 


7 


1 


2 


21 


43 


3 


6 


6 


6 


7 


7 


6 


8 


6 


4 


12 


28 


18 


1 


1 


"2 


4 


5 


5 


2 


7 


5 


12 


8 


45 


47 






6 


6 


7 


9 


6 


4 


5 


8 


3 


28 


31 


- .. 




1 


3 


4 


5 


7 


3 


15 


4 


8 


35 


35 


"2 


"5 




9 


6 


12 


12 


3 


8 


6 


8 


24 


14 




'i 


1 


1 


1 


2 


2 


5 


1 


2 


2 


14 


23 




1 




1 


1 


1 


2 


5 


2 


3 


2 


14 


18 


... 


1 


2 


1 


1 


4 


3 


6 


2 


5 


1 


21 


21 


"i 


1 




2 


5 


6 


4 


3 


7 


6 


7 


17 


23 


4 


2 


4 


4 


4 


8 


6 


11 


14 


8 


5 


32 


24 


5 


3 




7 


7 


5 


12 


8 


12 


8 


6 


33 


15 


1 


2 




1 


3 


1 


2 


4 


4 


6 


7 


22 


32 


2 


2 




3 


2 


5 


7 


8 


4 


4 


4 


29 


21 




1 




3 


2 
1 
1 

1 


1 
2 
2 
1 


1 

"1 
2 


2 

i 


1 
3 
1 
6 


3 
7 
2 
3 


2 

"i 

2 


3 
11 

9 
16 


5 

49 
39 
46 


""i 
""i 


2 

"i 








2 

1 
1 


3 
4 
2 
4 


3 
2 

' *i 


1 

"3 

2 


■"2 
2 
2 


2 
2 

2 
5 


4 
14 

8 
18 


5 


4 




'2 
2 


"4 
2 


24 










32 






'i 




31 


"i 




2 


'2 


6 


3 


1 


■3 


4 


3 


4 


22 


33 




" 4 




1 


6 


"5 


3 


6 


6 


5 


8 


20 


28 


5 


'2 


2 


1 


3 


4 


2 


1 


2 


3 


4 


15 


20 


■5 






3 


2 


4 


1 


3 




3 


3 


9 


16 


2 


1 


1 


2 


5 

3 


2 
5 


1 
6 


4 

6 


7 
8 


2 
5 


4 
6 


15 
31 


30 
45 


3 

3 


1 
1 




3 


3 

7 


3 

7 








1 
5 


2 
6 


2 
32 


3 




3 


^ 


6 


41 


' 3 




5 


4 


4 


6 


7 


3 


6 


10 


9 


29 


28 


1 


4 




6 


7 


6 


6 


10 


6 


5 


7 


28 


30 


3 


'i 




5 


4 


2 


6 


6 


15 


9 


6 


25 


39 


3 


2 




6 


7 


9 


2 


7 


9 


4 


9 


24 


18 






'3 
6 


2 

1 


1 

1 


5 
3 


S 

2 


6 

7 


5 
1 


4 

n 


4 
9 


24 
30 


44 
37 


2 
1 


2 
4 




4 


5 
6 


8 
4 


3 
4 


6 

7 


6 
11 


1 
5 


4 
10 


83 
27 


29 






20 


' 'i 




4 


1 


2 


4 


8 


6 


4 


5 


12 


22 


35 


3 






5 


5 


4 


2 


6 


10 


10 


7 


19 


24 


4 




1 


2 


4 


1 


2 


7 


8 


4 


1 


45 


43 


1 






9 


4 


14 


5 


6 


7 


6 


7 


33 


28 


1 


1 




1 


3 


6 


4 


8 


6 


3 


7 


31 


59 


1 


1 


2 


1 


3 


7 


4 


6 


11 


14 


9 


41 


29 




i 


'i 


1 
2 


1 
8 


3 

4 


2 
1 


2 
6 


1 

2 


5 
5 


4 
6 


9 
23 


37 
30 


1 
2 






1 
2 


"7 


4 
6 


3 
8 


2 
6 


2 
9 


4 

7 


1 
5 


19 
29 


28 


■ 'l 


■ 'i 


■5 


21 


2 


1 


4 




1 


] 


4 


3 


3 


4 


4 


18 


37 


3 


2 




4 


2 


2 


1 


6 


7 


4 


1 


21 


24 




1 




'1 


3 


7 


6 


2 


4 


5 


2 


17 


39 




2 


'5 


2 


4 


6 


1 


10 


7 


8 




16 


33 


' i 


2 




3 


1 


3 


3 


7 


7 


3 


5 


27 


36 


' i 




3 


1 


3 


4 


S 


10 


6 


7 


"9 


28 


24 


2 


2 


'i 


5 


3 


8 


9 


6 


2 


8 


6 


26 


38 


5 




5 


7 


4 


9 


12 


5 


6 


6 


7 


30 


14 








1 


1 


10 


2 


4 


7 


3 


2 


44 


24 


1 


1 


3 


2 


7 


g 


9 


g 


2 

7 


9 


9 


25 


14 
30 




'i 


'2 


2 


4 


5 


8 


3 


2 


9 


10 


33 


54 


2 


1 


4 


4 


5 


3 


4 


11 


9 


9 


30 


1 






3 


3 


2 


2 


6 


2 


2 


3 


10 


33 






1 


2 


4 


1 


1 


10 


2 


3 


4 


19 


20 


3 




'i 


1 


5 


5 


4 


10 


6 


S 


5 


27 


45 


2 


"2 


1 


4 


8 


3 


6 


4 


5 


4 


14 


27 


30 


- . . 






2 


2 


3 


2 


4 


2 


6 


3 


14 


45 




2 


2 


2 


2 


5 


5 


3 


5 


3 


2 


18 


84 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. 2- 



County. 


Number of Districts 
Having a School 
Enumeration of : 


Number of Schools Enrolling Fall Term. 


id 

o 


d 
o 

CD 


id 
o 


o 

CO 


o 


1" 


m 
m 

o 
•o 


CD 




00 


0^ 


d 


^• 


oi 


CO 


-^ 


id 


CD 




Johnson 




8 
2 

1 
6 

1 
4 
1 
1 
4 

2 
1 

10 
10 

1 

2 
8 


6 
9 

10 
20 

3 

7 

3 

1 

10 

3 
2 
4 

11 
3 
6 

13 
5 
7 
4 

10 
3 

12 
19 
4 
11 

9 
4 
16 

12 

16 
1 
5 
9 
6 

3 

5 

7 

7 

7 
6 
15 
3 
9 
4 

"15 

1 
7 

773 


19 
10 

19 

47 

16 
8 
5 
3 
6 

10 
12 

1 
19 

8 
13 
11 

8 
17 

9 

20 
11 

17 
20 
24 
24 
9 
14 
22 

22 

26 
4 
6 
16 
13 

17 
8 

9 

18 

9 
11 
19 

9 
29 

9 

6 
14 

4 
25 

1344 


20 
23 

20 
33 

16 
17 
12 
6 
17 

23 
12 
14 
80 
12 
15 
14 
13 
16 
6 

36 
13 

12 
9 
23 
33 
21 
14 
14 

21 

20 
9 
15 
33 
22 

26 
21 

10 

14 

10 
13 
23 
18 
80 
9 

e 

24 
8 
15 

1606 


80 
69 

76 
55 

'62 
64 
33 
38 
36 

34 
70 
47 
65 
55 
31 
46 
65 
23 
31 

63 
23 

76 
25 
60 
56 
86 
86 
49 

54 

50 
46 
40 
78 
49 

60 
38 

37 

66 

71 
59 
66 
55 
87 
50 
58 
65 
19 
51 

5299 


"2 

2 

8 

2 
2 
1 

1 
5 

1 

"5 
"2 

■■3 
1 

"2 

2 

"i 

2 

"i 
4 

1 

6 

"2 

2 

1 

5 

1 

2 
1 

"i 

"i 

1 
1 
2 

"i 

168 


"2 

2 
4 

1 

■"1 

1 
3 

"4 

"i 

3 
1 

i 

2 
2 
1 
2 

"2 
2 

1 

2 

"2 

1 

2 

1 
2 

"2 

"5 

"2 
3 

"i 

138 


4 
4 

1 
9 

1 
3 

1 

■5 

1 
1 

"2 
1 
2 
6 

1 
1 
2 

4 

1 

1 

"2 
2 
1 

"4 

3 

"2 

4 
2 

4 
5 

2 

"7 
1 
6 

■3 

I 
5 

218 


5 
4 

6 
10 

1 

7 

1 
1 
1 

"i 

"7. 

1 

"6 

"4 

1 

5 
1 

2 
4 

8 
5 
2 
5 
5 

4 

"3 

2 
3 

4 

3 
2 

2 

1 
5 

"4 
2 
2 
2 
2 
8 

263 


2 
8 

3 
12 

1 
5 
2 

1 
1 
1 
4 
1 
8 
2 
1 
2 
2 

1 
8 

4 
3 

! 

2 

4 
3 

6 

10 

1 
2 
4 
4 

4 

1 

7 
1 
4 

"i 
"9 

2 
2 

6 

"5 
335 


6 

5 

6 
13 

2 
4 
2 
2 

1 

4 
2 
1 

11 
4 

■■7 
2 
9 
4 

3 
1 

3 
6 
11 
2 
4 
2 
4 

6 

7 
1 
4 
8 
8 

6 
3 

4 

1 

1 

6 
4 
2 
S 

"e 

1 
7 

39E 


7 
8 

3 
11 

■'6 

2 

"4 

"2 
6 
2 

1 
8 
2 

1 
4 

4 

7 

3 

1 
8 
8 
8 
6 
4 

2 

5 

■3 

5 
5 

8 
3 

3 

11 

3 
2 
6 
8 

5 

"3 
4 
2 
3 

393 


5 
4 

2 
12 

2 

1 
1 
1 
5 

1 
1 

■4 
6 
4 

7 
1 
5 
1 

5 
4 

1 
3 
5 
3 
6 
12 
10 

4 

11 

"6 
12 
6 

7 
2 

8 

1 

2 
3 

6 
1 
8 

1 

1 

10 

"7 

448 


7 

7 

7 
13 

"9 
2 

'ib 

3 

7 

10 
2 
3 
4 

"3 
10 

8 

8 
6 

12 
8 
2 

10 
3 

3 

11 
4 
4 
8 
6 

7 
4 

9 

8 

2 
2 
8 
3 

8 

493 


4 
5 

7 
14 

"3 
4 
1 
3 

5 
3 
2 
3 
6 
5 
3 
2 
8 
2 

5 

1 

8 
3 
6 
8 
3 
10 
4 

8 

7 
3 
5 
8 
8 

10 
1 

9 

7 

2 
3 
10 

"5 
2 
1 

14 
1 
8 

511 


6 
2 

4 

7 

4 
4 
1 
3 
4 

6 
5 
5 
6 
2 

1 

' 

"3 
2 

11 
4 

3 
5 
9 
6 
2 
10 
6 

2 

3 

■■3 
4 
7 

9 

7 

2 

6 

2 
8 
5 
2 

8 

"i 

7 
4 
3 

465 


25 
26 

30 
27 

12 
23 

21 

6 

25 

21 
15 

7 

29 
18 
17 
30 

9 
27 
21 

35 
6 

24 

14 
30 
25 
25 
38 
36 

24 

29 
8 

24 
48 
19 

48 
21 

21 

20 

12 
17 
41 
11 
31 
13 

6 
38 

8 
16 

2258 


47 


Jones 




4d 


Keokuk 




47 


KOBBUth 


3 


19 


Lee 


20 


Linn 




60 






22- 


Lucas 




30 






14 


Madison 




27 


Mahaska 




57 




1 
1 


85 


Marshall 


37 


Mills 


3a 


Mitchell 


1 


9 


Monona 


39 


Monroe 




23 


Montgomery 




4 

1 

1 
2 

2 
4 
2 
6 


28 






18 


O'Brien 


1 
1 

1 


2a 




6 


Page 


54 


Palo Alto 


10 


Plymouth 




29 


Pocahontas 

Polk 


1 


16 

70 


Pottawattamie 


'i 


2 

2 

3 

7 


58 
20 


Ringgold 


41 


Sac 




28 


Scott ... 




23, 








20 




8 


3 

1 

8 
1 

8 

4 


89 


Story 


27 


Tama 




34 


Taylor 




30 




1 


33 


Van Buren 


49 


Wapello 




65 






3 
1 
2 

7 

1 
2 
5 


52 
32 
34 
44 
5 
13 
43 
18 
21 

'<?874 


Washington 






1 


Webster 




2 


Winneshiek 

Worth 


Wright 




5 
276 


Total 


31 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



Continued. 



Number of Schools Enrolling Winter Term. 


Number of Schools Enrolling Spring Term. 


m 

























g 


m 



























CM 
























i 





























OJ5 


o 















oi 


03 


■^ 


10 


CD 


s- 


















CQ 


CC 




1(5 





S^ 


>a 


to 


t^ 


06 


d> 




'"' 






" 




'^ 


»n 


CO 


t^ 


06 


05 




^ 




.-H 


■^ 


'"' 


•"* 




2 


1 


4 


6 


3 


6 


7 


3 


8 


9 


22 


61 


1 


2 


6 


4 


1 


fi 


3 


6 


2 


5 


7 


27 


48 


"l 




1 


5 


4 


4 


6 


4 


8 


4 


3 


30 


48 


3 


4 


3 


4 


i 


8 


2 


7 


7 


4 


3 


80 


45 


5 








5 


3 


1 


6 


5 


r 


2 


27 


59 


1 




2 


8 


3 


3 


4 


7 


5 


5 


6 


26 


37 


5 




"3 


"e 


8 


12 


10 


15 


14 


10 


9 


68 


45 


4 


e 


8 


18 


11 


13 


19 


17 


12 


18 


8 


34 


30 


1 




2 


8 




1 




2 


2 


4 


3 


18 


41 


3 


1 


4 




2 


3 


4 


4 


3 


2 




15 


28 


3 




2 


2 


"6 


4 


"4 


5 


9 


3 


4 


25 


64 


8 


1 


4 


"4 


3 


4 


5 


9 


7 


7 


"4 


26 


53 


1 




1 




1 


4 


1 


3 


5 


2 


4 


16 


25 


2 


1 


1 


2 


1 


3 


7 


1 


2 




3 


20 


19 






^ 








1 


1 






1 


12 


34 






1 


2 






1 


2 


1 


'2 


3 


12 


28 


■'6 




"1 


"i 


"2 


"i 


1 


4 


"6 


"e 


4 


28 


32 


"'6 


"i 


5 


2 


"i 


"4 


3 


5 


7 


7 


7 


24 


22 


1 






1 


1 


2 


2 


2 


1 


5 


3 


20 


33 


1 


1 


4 




4 


2 


2 


4 


4 


6 


4 


16 


23 






"2 






1 


1 


1 


1 


1 




22 


62 




1 


4 


"i 


2 


2 


2 


2 


2 


4 


5 


21 


51 








"2 




2 




1 


2 




■'6 


15 


36 


"i 




1 


2 




1 


8 


2 


3 


4 


1 


15 


30 


"2 






4 


■'6 


B 


"2 


4 


9 


"3 


9 


82 


47 


4 


"4 


3 




"7 


6 


8 


3 


8 


9 


8 


30 


34 






"i 


3 


2 




4 


3 


4 


5 


8 


19 


86 


2 




2 


"2 


4 


3 


1 


2 


2 


■ 7 


3 


19 


32 


"l 






2 


5 


"i 


2 


4 


4 


5 


4 


16 


18 


1 


"i 


2 


2 


6 


3 


1 


3 


5 


4 


3 


18 


14 


1 




"7 


3 


5 


7 


3 


1 


11 


8 


5 


31 


46 


3 


1 


3 


4 


5 


7 


10 


3 


5 


8 


8 


29 


37 






1 






1 


2 


1 


2 


2 




11 


60 










2 


3 


2 


3 


2 


4 




16 


49 


"2 




3 


"i 


"i 


3 


2 


5 


3 


6 


■4 


80 


84 


■3 




"4 


"4 


8 


7 


8 


5 


7 


5 


■■4 


13 


22 








1 


1 


2 


3 


3 


1 


2 


2 


16 


27 


2 


"i 


.1 


4 


1 


3 


3 


3 




3 


6 


12 


21 


1 




1 


1 


1 


8 


4 


3 


6 


9 


8 


30 


40 


2 


2 


1 


5 


6 


3 


6 


10 


6 


13 


16 


29 


20 






2 




2 


2 


4 


3 


3 


3 


3 


22 


21 


8 


2 


2 


8 


3 


1 


6 


5 


5 


8 


5 


14 


6 


4 




1 


2 


6 


1 


2 


i 


3 


5 


8 


35 


53 


2 


2 


2 


1 


3 


3 


6 


8 


8 


5 


2 


29 


39 


1 






3 


3 


1 


3 


1 


6 


5 


6 


22 


20 


3 


5 




2 


4 


7 


6 


8 


4 


7 


5 


8 


15 


2 






4 


2 


7 


9 


10 


3 


2 


6 


39 


46 


2 


3 


'4 


5 


8 


7 


8 


8 


9 


7 


11 


31 


33 




"i 


"i 


2 


5 


1 


4 


6 


10 


2 


17 


37 


44 


3 




2 


3 


6 


13 


9 


10 


7 


10 


5 


82 


24 






2 




2 


4 


4 


2 


2 


2 


9 


23 


79 


2 


"3 




1 


8 


3 


5 


2 


8 


8 


3 


20 


6S 






3 


"i 


4 


3 


5 


e 


5 


9 


8 


38 


78 


4 


1 


■■3 




6 


6 


5 


13 


12 


8 


7 


47 


53 


"2 


"b 


4 


5 


1 


1 


7 


6 


6 


3 


7 


30 


31 


5 


2 


8 


"2 


7 


4 


9 


4 


9 


6 


6 


22 


25 


1 




2 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


6 


3 


31 


34 


1 


2 




4 


4 


5 


4 


5 


3 


8 


4 


21 


21 


2 


2 


1 


3 


3 


2 


5 


7 


11 


12 


8 


32 


39 


3 


3 


1 


4 


4 


8 


6 


5 


9 


8 


11 


40 


20 






1 




1 




2 


1 


1 


2 


2 


5 


44 






3 


. 


1 


1 


2 


1 


1 


2 


5 


16 


36 






1 




1 


"i 


4 


1 


4 


4 


3 


16 


40 


"i 




1 


■'2 


9 


2 


4 


2 


4 


9 


9 


23 


16 


"2 




2 




3 


4 


3 


8 


4 


9 


9 


52 


67 


1 




4 


3 


8 


5 


8 


9 


2 


10 


7 


43 


55 






2 


"i 




3 


3 


6 


3 


6 


5 


27 


38 






1 


1 


10 


4 


3 


9 


11 


8 


1 


23 


20 


1 


1 


4 


2 


2 


3 


6 


2 


8 


1 


11 


43 


58 


6 


7 


4 


5 


7 


7 


6 


1 


5 


9 


5 


43 


30 


1 






1 


2 


1 


1 


4 


2 


4 


4 


16 


35 


1 


1 


2 




4 


1 


8 


2 


5 


6 


3 


14 


32 


1 


2 


5 




2 


5 


5 


3 


7 


6 


8 


'27 


34 


5 


3 


3 


10 


4 


4 


5 


5 


3 


4 


6 


21 


29 




2 


2 


3 


3 


2 


2 


6 


6 


4 


6 


28 


43 






2 


2 


1 


2 


3 


6 


3 


6 


5 


22 


31 


, 






2 


2 




5 


2 


3 


3 


1 


12 


47 


2 


2 






4 


4 


1 


5 


3 


5 


4 


20 


43 


"i 






2 


2 


"2 


2 


3 


1 


1 


3 


23 


56 




1 


"i 


"i 


1 


5 


4 


4 


6 


3 


2 


27 


36 


2 


"i 


"2 


1 


5 


2 


7 


6 


5 


3 


9 


82 


47 


"3 


2 


5 


2 


5 


5 


8 


4 


9 


9 


6 


33 


33 






"2 


1 

5 


"6 


■5 


7 
8 


1 
11 


1 
3 


ib 


1 
12 


18 
39 


52 
52 










1 

8 


2 
9 


2 
13 


2 

11 


2 

7 


8 
10 


4 
10 


21 
34 


87 


2 


"6 


"4 


■5 


"2 


38 










3 


1 


1 







2 


2 


20 


42 




1 






4 


2 


4 


5 


3 


9 


5 


21 


22 


"i 


"i 


"'i 


"i 


1 


2 


3 


"2 


2 


1 


2 


13 


62 


"i 


1 


■3 


"2 




3 


8 


6 


3 


2 


3 


19 


43 


2 


1 


2 


2 


1 


4 


8 


7 


6 


14 


12 


27 


64 


1 


4 


2 


6 


"5 


10 


9 


8 


7 


10 


11 


81 


45 










2 


4 


2 




4 


6 


5 


20 


27 




1 


1 


3 


2 


6 


4 


4 


6 


5 


5 


20 


28. 




"2 

90 


'■3 

I154 


isi 


3 
271 


3 
335 


3 
366 


"4 
437 


6 
469 


7 
462 


5 
521 


32 


39 


"3 
213 


2 

171 


8 

257 


3 

305 


5 
391 


7 
462 


6 
486 


8 


4 


8 


6 


24 


20 


182 


2,498 


3,974 


542 


549I576 


549 


2,324 


2,774 



10 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. III. 
Fall Term 1903. 
Number of schools having an average daily attendance of : 



Counties. 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 




8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 
to 
20 


More 

than 

20 


Audubon 








2 
"3 


"i 

1 


I 
1 

7 


3 
6 
5 

1 
1 

B 
6 
6 
2 

7 
6 
2 

1 
4 
7 
6 
8 
10 
11 
4 

5 
1 
3 
6 

3 

4 


4 

3 
6 

i 

12 
3 
9 
3 
6 
1 
6 

3 
3 
6 
9 
10 
10 
8 
14 
10 
4 
5 
2 

6 
3 
2 
2 

] 
7 
7 

5 
10 
6 

7 

6 
8 
9 

9 

5 

7 
2 
7 
8 
3 

6 
5 

6 

6 
3 


4 
5 

9 

1 

6 

6 
11 
4 

12 
5 
3 

8 
1 
8 
6 
5 
8 
(1 
7 

10 
2 
5 

13 

7 
4 
4 

t 

10 
6 

6 
9 
10 

5 

7 
7 
6 

3 
5 

3 
3 
2 

6 
5 

8 
4 

5 

8 
4 


7 
3 
6 

9 
11 
11 

8 
8 
5 
2 

3 
6 
7 
2 

12 
4 
7 

13 
3 
4 
5 
5 

3 
1 

1 
1 
3 
10 
2 

1 

7 

12 
7 
5 

10 

7 
10 

16 
9 

1 
3 
4 

1 
5 

10 
10 

4 

12 
3 


10 

2 
7 
3 
3 

9 
11 
14 

7 
10 
8 
4 

8 
4 
8 
9 
14 
10 
3 
12 
10 

"6 
13 

8 
3 
5 
3 

i 

4 

1 

7 
6 
7 
8 

8 
7 
11 

8 
7 
5 
1 
7 
5 
5 

5 
11 

6 
6 
5 


8 
7 
10 

4 

1 

6 

7 
11 
8 
5 
9 
6 

5 

"8 
4 
6 
4 
7 

11 
7 
2 
9 

13 

6 

] 
4 
2 
2 

3 

7 

1 

12 
10 
5 

7 

7 
6 
13 

10 
6 
8 
4 
7 
5 
9 

12 
5 

2 
6 
5 


9 

8 
10 
5 

1 

7 
8 
8 
9 
5 
7 
1 

17 
4 
1 
3 

12 
9 

10 
5 

12 
3 
1 

11 

3 

1 
1 
4 
2 
6 
7 

2 

4 
7 
9 
10 

12 
4 
5 

6 
7 
4 
5 
4 
6 
6 

8 
14 

3 
8 
13 


6 
6 

15 
4 
2 

10 
11 
5 

6 
5 
6 
4 

7 
9 
4 
5 

15 
6 
6 

10 
7 
4 
1 
6 

7 

■■3 
4 

10 
4 

1 

4 

7 
9 
2 

5 
9 
9 

6 
4 

7 
4 
3 
8 
4 

6 
3 

4 
6 

2 


8 
4 
3 
1 

3 
12 
11 

5 

17 
4 

1 

9 

"2 
] 
4 
6 
3 

10 
8 
2 
6 

11 

4 
1 
5 
4 
3 
6 
6 

9 
2 

e 
5 

9 
2 

8 

7 
2 
4 
5 
5 
3 
9 

7 
6 

7 
9 
4 


23 
16 
22 
11 
3 

24 
25 
24 
25 

28 
5 
8 

34 
17 

9 
16 
18 
15 
13 
31 
22 

8 

22 
29 

21 
6 
16 
14 
13 
21 
12 

2 

27 

17 

9 

29 

19 
16 

30 

27 
12 
7 
21 
16 
21 
11 

18 
24 

11 
27 

21 


18 


Adams 

Adair 








7 
11 










20 


Allamakee 










3 


Benton 

Buchanan 


1 


3 


1 

"i 


■ 5 
3 

1 

"2 

1 

"3 
2 
3 
2 
3 
2 
2 


7 
3 
4 
4 
3 
3 
3 

6 

2 
5 

2 

1 

10 

4 
1 
5 

"3 
3 

2 
2 


7 
9 
2 
1 
2 
3 
1 

2 
2 
6 

5 
8 
12 
6 

1 
7 
1 
4 

1 

3 


15 
16 


Butler 




13 


Boone 






15 


Black Hawk 




i 
1 


■3 

3 
2 
2 
2 


13 


Buena Vista 


1 


Bremer 




5 


Oass 




g 


Clayton 




2 


17 


Carroll 

Crawford 




1 

g 


Calhoun 






6 


Cerro Gordo 

Clay 




2 


4 
g 


Clinton 




18 


Cherokee 




3 


Chickasaw 




6 


Clarke 






11 


Cedar 








3 


13 


Dallas 






12 


Dickinson 






2 


Davi.s 




27 


Des Moines 








"2 
2 
4 

1 
■■5 


"4 
5 

1 

1 
6 
8 

6 
5 
4 

2 
7 
5 
2 


i 

3 
6 

6 
3 
5 
4 

7 
2 

1 

1 
3 
5 
2 
5 
6 
4 

3 
6 

3 
& 

2 


3 
2 

7 
4 

3 

2 
10 
5 

3 
8 
5 

6 
8 
5 

"6 
5 

8 

4 

1 

6 
3 
2 


18 








19 


Delaware 




i 


'3 


12 






22 














17 


Floyd 








5 


Fremont 




1 


1 


16 


Greene 




g 


Orundy 

Guthrie 


1 


i 


1 
3 

1 
1 

i 


2 
2 

"5 
3 


10 

18 

17 


Hamilton 




Hardin 




1 
1 


3 
12 
12 
22 
5 
5 






Henry 












2 
2 

1 
1 

3 
2 


5 

2 

2 
4 


Humboldt 






2 


Ida 






Iowa 






2 
1 


24 

13 
12 
23 








Jasoer 




1 


Jefferson 





COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



11 



TABLE No. Ill— CoNTrtTUED. 

Fall Tbrm, 1904. 

Number of schools having an average daily attendance of : 



Counties. 



10 



11 



12 



13 



Johnson . 
Jones 



Keokuk . 
Kossuth. 



Lee. . . , 
Linn . . 
Louisa 
Lucas 
Lyon . . 



Madison , 

Mahaska 

Marion 

Marshall 

Mills 

Mitchell 

Monona 

Monroe 

Montgomery 
Muscatine . . . 



O'Brien 
Osceola . 



Page 

Palo Alto 

Plymouth 

Pocahontas 

Polk 

Pottawattamie 
Poweshiek , 



Ringgold. 



Sac 

Scott. . 
Shelby . 
Sioux . 
Story.. 



Tama . 
Taylor. 

Union . 



Van Buren. 



Wapello 

Warren 

Washington , 

Wayne 

Webster . 
Winnebago . 
Winneshiek 
Woodbury . . 

Worth 

Wright. 



Total. 



3 28 85 14.5 29.S .^46 459 517 576 581 1616 595 616 555 533 1. 832 1,303 



6 11 



12 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. IV. 

WiNTKR Term 1903-04. 

Number of schools having an average daily attendance of : 



County. 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


lb 
to 
20 


More 

than 

20 












2 

"4 
1 
2 

5 
2 
3 
4 
2 
3 
2 

4 

5 
8 
3 
3 
2 
3 
2 
3 
1 
2 
4 

1 

1 
1 
1 

"■3 

1 

1 


3 

"4 
.... 

5 
8 
6 
3 
4 
3 
3 

4 
3 
2 
5 
6 
6 

10 
3 
4 
1 
2 
3 

8 
4 

"2 

3 
6 

3 

8 

6 
3 
5 
2 

5 
4 
6 

1 
2 
3 
4 

5 

1 
8 

1 
6 


3 
4 
4 
2 

5 
7 
9 
6 
4 
6 
2 

2 
6 
2 
b 
6 
11 
10 
10 
5 
2 
8 
5 

3 
3 
3 
3 
2 
4 
8 

8 

.5 
4 
4 
12 

4 

8 

b 

4 
6 

3 
1 

11 
2 
3 

1 
6 

4 

e 


1 
4 
4 
2 
3 

7 
6 
3 
9 
3 
2 
6 

5 
8 
9 
8 
6 

11 
7 
8 

11 

'"5 

7 

6 
5 
3 
1 

'"8 
6 

4 

10 
5 

10 
6 

3 

5 
6 

7 
8 
4 
4 
5 
7 
4 

6 
6 

8 

7 


6 
5 

8 

6 

8 
10 

2 
11 

4 

8 

4 

2 

8 

6 
11 

6 

9 
10 
15 

4 

5 

5 

7 
6 
3 

1 
8 
8 
4 

8 

3 
9 
9 
9 

7 
4 
2 

5 

7 
7 
5 
5 
5 
9 

2 
4 

7 
11 


1 
3 
5 
2 
6 

7 
9 

11 
6 

12 
8 
6 

4 

7 
6 
3 
8 
7 
6 
15 
8 
4 

"ii 

6 
4 
3 

8 
9 
2 
2 

6 

12 
10 
10 

8 

13 

7 
15 

9 
8 

4 
3 

7 
7 
4 

12 
9 

2 

7 


4 

4 
6 
6 
I 

8 
7 
6 
12 
12 
4 
3 

5 
6 

'"e 

10 
8 
6 
8 

15 
3 
2 
9 

5 
2 
3 
1 
4 
5 
4 

5 

10 
9 

10 
5 

9 
10 
10 

12 
7 
6 
3 
5 
5 
6 

5 

14 

7 
14 


4 
7 
7 
9 
3 

9 
10 
11 
11 
13 
10 

8 

13 

8 

8 

6 
12 
11 

6 
13 

4 

3 

7 
10 

5 
8 
3 
3 
4 

11 
1 

8 

7 
5 
9 
9 

10 
11 
11 

6 
9 
5 

5 
6 
15 
10 

13 

10 

2 
6 


4 

5 
11 
6 
3 

11 
10 
8 
12 

5 
6 
5 

4 
9 
8 
2 
8 
5 
7 
8 
4 
7 
5 
12 

7 
4 
4 
2 
6 
8 
4 

4 

7 
8 
9 
13 

4 

8 

7 

10 
6 
B 
2 

4 
5 
5 

g 

9 

2 
4 


8 
3 
6 
8 
3 

11 

8 
8 
9 

7 
7 
3 

8 
9 
5 
3 
8 
7 
9 
12 
10 
3 
6 
8 

7 
1 
2 
3 
2 
10 
3 

2 

11 
12 
6 
2 

11 

5 
11 

6 
6 
8 

5 
3 
5 
2 

6 
6 

8 

S 


10 
6 
10 

7 
3 

5 

10 
15 

7 

8 

3 

4 

13 

10 
8 
5 
8 
6 
8 

18 
9 
1 
3 

10 

8 
8 

2 
4 
8 
5 
2 

6 

7 
5 
2 
9 

7 
2 
11 

9 
8 
6 
1 
5 
6 
9 

2 

11 

8 

12 


38 

12 
27 
13 

7 

24 
85 
25 
40 
35 
5 
11 

27 
31 
10 
13 
29 
20 
20 
34 
27 
14 
17 
81 

22 

26 
19 
22 
21 
6 

9 

S 
24 
24 
29 

17 
20 
31 

36 
22 
19 
20 
18 
23 
20 

36 
26 

12 
25 


22 










1 


16 


Adair .. 




1 


2 


18 
33 










1 

2 
1 
2 
2 
2 
1 
3 

2 
6 
2 
8 
8 
7 
5 
.... 

1 


4 








2 

1 
2 

1 


14 








16 


Butler 

Boone 

Black Hawk. . . . 






15 

21 
12 
4 


Bremer 






1 

1 
3 
2 
2 

■ i 

3 


5 


Cass 






21 


Clayton 






38 


Carroll 




1 
1 

"i 


3 


Crawford 




9 


Calhoun 

Cerro Gordo 

Clay 




12 
7 
12 


Clinton 

Cherokee 




1 


16 
5 


Chickasaw 








8 


Clarke 








16 


Cedar 








2 

2 
1 
2 

"2 
4 

5 

8 


7 


Dallas 








11 


Dickinson 

Davis 






1 


2 
23 


Des Moines 






1 


14 


Decatur 






18 


Delaware 










Dubuque 




1 

1 


2 
2 


7 


Emmet 




3 


Fayette 




16 


Floyd 

Franklin 




1 


"2 
8 


5 
2 

8 
3 
2 

1 
1 
2 

'"'2 
4 


4 
2 
2 

3 
4 
3 

"2 
4 

1 
2 

a 

2 


4 

6 


Fremont . 








Greene 






12 


Grundy 




1 


"2 

1 
2 
1 


18 


Guthrie 




13 


Hamilton 






23 


Hancock 

Hardin 




1 


10 
10 


Harrison 






11 


Henry 






1 
" '1 


17 


Howard 






9 


Humboldt 

Ida 


1 
6 


Iowa 








3 
1 


i 


18 


Jackson 






1 


15 


Jasper 




1 


10 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



18 



TABLE No. IV— Continued. 

Winter Term 1903-1904. 

Number of schools having an average daily attendance of : 



County. 



Jefferson . 
Johnson . 
Jones . . . , 



Keokuk 
Kossuth 



Lee . . . . 

Linn.. . 
Louisa , 
Lucas . . 
Lyon . . 



Madison 

Mahaska 

Marion ... 

Marshall 

Mills 

Mitchell 

Monona. 

Monroe 

Montgomery 
Muscatine . . 



O'Brien. 
Osceola. 



Page 

Palo Alto 

Plymouth 

Pocahontas 

Polk 

Pottawattamie , 
Poweshiek 



Ringgold ... 

Sac 

Scott 

Shelby 

Sioux 

Story 

Tama 

Taylor 

Union 

Van Baren. 

Wapello 

Warren 
Washington 

Wavne 

Webster .... 
Winnebago. . 
Winneshiek 
Woodbury . . , 

Worth 

Wright 

Total .... 



1 . 



166 



10 



11 



13 



14 



445 



554 



6471 746 



661 



621 2,160 



14 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. V. 

Spring Term, 1904. 

Number of schools having an average daily attendance of : 



County. 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5' 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 
to 
20 


More 

than 

20 








2 


.... 

1 


2 

" 5 


4 
3 
4 

1 
2 

4 
5 

b 
6 
4 
6 

4 

5 

5 
7 
6 
7 
14 

e 

6 
5 
2 
6 
4 

2 
3 
1 
2 
2 
2 
2 

4 

2 

8 
7 
10 

6 
8 
8 

2 
8 
6 
2 
4 
2 
4 

5 
5 

4 
4 

1 


2 
6 
6 
2 

1 

6 
6 

7 

3 
7 
1 

8 

2 
4 
6 
9 
8 
7 
5 

10 
1 
4 
8 

6 
3 

1 
4 
5 
2 
3 

1 

10 
9 
6 
5 

4 

7 
8 

3 
6 
5 
1 
4 
5 
6 

8 
6 

4 

6 
4 


6 
4 
6 
3 

1 

9 
6 
10 
6 
4 
5 
6 

4 
6 
5 
5 
3 
8 
11 
11 
17 
2 
4 
4 

10 
6 
2 
2 

1 
7 
2 

3 

6 

10 
9 

6 

3 
10 

9 
11 
2 
4 
4 
4 
9 

14 

7 

7 
8 
5 


3 

5 
6 

1 
3 

14 
12 
10 
10 
10 
6 
5 

8 
7 
8 
9 

13 

10 
9 
9 

10 
1 
5 

11 

8 
5 
3 
2 
6 
8 
6 

8 
5 
15 
9 

7 
11 
10 

6 
6 

6 
3 
9 

7 
7 

9 

5 

6 
12 
8 


5 
5 
18 
3 
4 

6 
10 
20 
5 
9 
4 
9 

7 
5 

10 
6 

16 
4 
8 
7 
8 
3 

10 

11 

2 
5 
1 
2 
3 
14 
4 

1 

7 
6 
11 
6 

14 
6 
9 

12 
11 
10 

3 
11 
11 

6 

10 
10 

4 
8 
6 


4 
5 
10 
2 
3 

6 

7 
7 
9 
7 
5 
3 

12 

5 

6 

10 

11 

11 

10 

6 

11 

6 

7 

11 

12 
4 
4 
4 

2 
6 

1 

3 

6 
6 
12 

7 

10 
8 
11 

16 
8 
4 
5 
6 
6 
9 

6 
11 

3 
10 
2 


7 
10 
6 
3 
2 

11 
13 
11 
11 
13 
7 
6 

5 
3 
6 
2 
9 
6 
8 
8 
8 
2 

8 
6 

6 
3 

■"i 

6 
5 
S 

9 

10 
3 
6 

11 
10 
11 

9 
6 
2 

8 
4 

8 

7 

8 

8 

5 
6 
6 


6 
4 

10 
8 
3 

12 
13 
6 
11 

7 
7 
5 

8 
13 
5 
7 
11 
9 
9 
4 
6 
5 
3 
10 

3 
5 
3 
3 
5 
9 

8 
7 
6 
9 

7 
8 
11 

16 
4 
6 
5 
4 
5 
5 

7 
10 

4 
9 
1 


3 
6 
9 
2 
2 

9 
8 
8 
14 
9 
6 
5 

6 
12 

5 
4 

7 
8 
7 
6 
7 
4 
5 
5 

5 

.... 

11 

7 
2 

2 

2 
11 

4 
4 

6 
9 
11 

13 
8 
7 
2 
5 
6 
8 

5 
12 

6 
4 

1 


7 
3 
6 
5 
8 

4 
4 
4 
7 

12 
2 
2 

3 
6 
1 
1 
6 
4 
6 
12 
7 
3 
4 
8 

8 
1 
3 
3 
3 
6 
4 

1 

7 
6 

e 

6 

6 
2 

7 

10 
9 
4 

4 

3 
6 
6 

2 
6 

6 
4 
6 


41 
9 
22 
12 
5 

21 
23 
21 
22 
29 
9 
9 

29 
21 
10 
12 
22 
15 
16 
32 
17 
14 
18 
32 

16 
5 
12 
20 
12 
22 
3 


15 






6 


jtdair 




2 


1 


4 






19 












] 

5 
4 
] 
2 
4 
2 
3 

5 

2 
4 
5 
5 
7 
7 
3 
6 

'"4 

1 
2 

'"4 
4 

1 

1 
5 
1 
2 

6 
8 
3 

3 
5 
5 

"■5 
2 
2 

3 
4 

2 
2 
1 


9 








2 


4 

1 
5 
1 
4 
1 
2 

4 
3 

""2 


'""5 
1 
3 

1 

"3 

8 
1 


13 






2 


19 


Butler 




18 








1 


21 


Black Hawk 






13 


Buena Vista 






2 


1 
9 


Cass r... 






2 
2 
4 
1 


10 








23 


Carroll .. 

Crawford 


1 


2 


5 
3 








6 


Cerro Gordo 

Clay 


"i 


1 


5 

1 


5 

6 


Clinton 


9 








1 


3 


Chickasaw 






7 


Clarke 






1 
1 

1 

1 


5 


Cedar 

Dallas 






8 
10 








2 








15 


Des Moines 






1 
1 

1 
1 

1 

"2 
3 

"i 

1 


"■"2 
2 
2 

1 
2 

3 

1 

2 
4 

"2 

1 
.... 

'"4 

1 
2 


12 


Decatur 

Delaware 






10 
9 


Dubuque 

Emmet 


1 


1 
3 


a 


Fayette 




37 
20 
16 
30 

17 
19 

29 

25 
19 
14 
12 
12 
20 
11 

19 
IS 

16 
23 
19 


2a 
4 


Floyd 




1 
1 


Franklin 




7 


Fremont 




5 

8 
8 
12 

6 
7 
11 
15 
20 
12' 
4 








Grundy 

Guthrie 


1 




Hamilton 






Hancock 






Hardin 

Harrison 






2 
1 


Henry 






Howard 




1 
1 


"2 

1 
3 


Humboldt 




Ida 




Iowa 






19 

10 
11 
21 


Jackson 






Jasper 






3 


2 

1 


Jef^rson 




... 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



15 



TABLE No. V— CONTINTTED. 

Spbing Tebm, 1904. 
Number of schools having an average daily attendance of ; 



County. 


1 


2 


a 


4 


6 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 
to 
20 


More 

than 

20 










2 
3 

1 
4 

2 

1 
2 
1 
4 

1 

1 


7 
4 

4 
11 

4 
3 
2 

1 
6 
2 
9 
5 
1 
5 
1 
2 
2 

3 
2 

3 

4 
6 
4 
3 
6 
4 

5 

3 
3 
3 
1 
3 

7 
8 

7 


8 
6 

4 
19 

2 
4 
2 

■"6 

3 
3 
1 
3 
2 
4 
8 
4 
4 
2 

7 
3 

6 
6 

7 
5 
7 
6 
6 

3 

6 
1 

1 

12 
3 

6 
2 

5 

2 

2 
2 

7 
2 
8 
8 
6 
14 
8 
6 


11 
4 

3 
23 

4 

6 
4 
2 

7 

3 
1 
2 
6 
4 
4 
8 
2 
11 
1 

9 

4 

1 
9 
13 

7 
1 
5 
8 

2 

10 
1 
4 
6 

8 

10 
5 

5 

4 

1 
7 
4 

"■9 

7 
5 
12 
3 
4 


8 

7 

5 
23 

4 
5 
1 
4 
10 

"3 
2 

10 
6 
4 

13 
2 
6 
5 

11 
10 

10 
14 
18 
11 
10 
7 
5 

7 

6 

"'"e 
9 
4 

7 
3 

4 

2 

3 
4 

6 
5 

13 
4 
5 

14 
6 

11 


5 
10 

7 
17 

■3 
5 
9 

5 

5 
1 
7 
5 
2 
4 

15 
1 

14 
1 

12 
6 

9 
13 

6 
11 

6 
20 
12 

9 

10 
5 

4 
9 

7 

8 
1 

7 

3 

4 

7 
5 
2 

15 
5 
5 
9 

12 
4 


11 
6 

4 
10 

5 
13 
4 

4 
3 
3 

15 
4 
4 

10 
3 

11 
8 

7 
6 

3 
12 
16 
10 

12 

8 

7 

9 
4 
6 
9 
3 

7 
2 

8 

6 

6 
5 
4 
6 
9 
8 
5 
7 
4 
11 


5 
11 

8 
10 

4 
9 
7 
4 
6 

3 
4 

4 
7 
5 
7 
7 
3 
5 
3 

12 

5 

10 
8 

11 

12 
6 

17 
5 

6 

8 
5 
5 
15 
8 

9 
5 

5 

5 

6 
3 
7 
7 
9 
5 
7 

13 
6 

11 


7 
3 

6 
16 

6 
7 
5 
5 
6 

3 
9 
6 
11 
8 
3 
7 
4 
8 
5 

13 
6 

5 

8 
12 

9 
15 
13 

6 

9 

11 
2 
7 

13 
9 

5 
10 

7 

6 

5 
4 
8 
9 
7 
8 
3 
15 
8 
9 


7 
6 

8 
15 

5 

8 
5 
1 
5 

6 
5 
3 
11 
5 
7 
7 
2 
2 
5 

9 
3 

5 
2 
3 
6 

7 

12 
5 

4 

13 
4 
8 

16 
9 

12 
4 

6 

8 

5 

7 
11 
3 
12 
9 
4 
9 
3 
7 


12 
5 

7 
9 

6 

7 
5 
4 

7 

6 
5 
4 
5 
5 
2 
6 
3 
2 

9 
3 

5 
4 
5 
6 
14 
9 
6 

6 

12 
6 
7 

13 
5 

9 
5 

6 

6 

5 
2 

10 
7 

10 
2 
6 
4 
5 
6 


4 

8 

8 
9 

4 
3 
7 
8 
9 

6 

7 
6 
8 
4 
2 
5 
4 
5 
7 

5 
3 

9 
2 
5 
5 
6 
9 
4 

6 

5 
4 
6 
3 
10 

7 
4 

5 

6 

4 
5 
7 
7 
9 
6 
7 
9 
3 
6 


36 

29 

26 
20 

8 
29 
13 
17 

15 

19 
22 
18 
23 
16 
15 
21 
28 
12 
11 

21 
5 

27 
10 
19 
28 
23 
36 
23 

15 

21 
17 
11 
35 
19 

28 
23 

16 

20 

14 
19 
37 
20 
23 
18 
23 
28 
18 
24 


19 


Jones 




1 


1 


22 






19 






4 


2 

1 
1 

1 


9 






13 


Linn 




1 


35 


Louisa 




11 


Lyon. 


1 


1 


3 


4 

11 




21 




1 






19 




1 




1 

2 

1 
2 


10 


Mills 




12 


Mitchell 








8 








3 


6 








24 








1 


2 


4 








13 


O'Brien 




2 




S 
4 

1 
2 
3 

'"2 
4 
2 

2 

1 


3 






4 








1 

1 
5 
1 
1 
1 


18 


Palo Alto . . 




2 

1 


7 






1 






8 


Polk 


"i 


"i 


30 
15 
11 






7 


Sac 




1 


1 




Bcott 




16 


Shelby 


"i 


... 




■■7 

1 

3 
5 


6 
9 


ytory 


8 


Tama 






3 
1 

2 


19 


Taylor 






6 








12 








15 






1 


1 


2 
1 

1 


2 

1 
3 


33 






25 








1 


9 








12 


Webster 


1 




3 


5 


6 
2 
3 

7 
1 
5 


18 
4 












16 


Woodbury 

Worth 






2 


5 


10 
14 


Wright 






1 


1 


9 










Total 


9 


29 


91 


170 


318 


474 


521 


645 


707 


705 


698 


708 


660 


600 


525 


1,917 


1,114 



16 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE 
Monthly Salaries Paid Rural Teachers for the School Year 1903-04, 





$20 


More than 
$20 Less 
than $25. 


$25. 




More than 

$25 Less 
than $30. 


$30. 


County . 


a 


s 

u 

CI 


a 

u 

i 

en 


s 

fa 




a 

a 

a 


a 


a 


a 

be 

a 
ft 

CD 


a 

fa 


a 

D 
U 

a 


a 

u 

n 
a 

03 


a 

s- 

fa 


a 


a 
Z 

a 

•s 

0. 

CD 
















1 




1 


3 




1 


44 
19 

38 

10 

1 

40 
82 
73 
63 
73 
21 
1 

2 
24 

6 
24 
39 
32 
22 
22 
56 

8 
19 
65 

19 
8 
17 
21 
12 
19 
26 

2 

16 
15 

40 
32 

24 
30 
59 

25 
8 
24 
85 
21 
22 
21 

1 
36 

4 
57 


4 

■'15 
32 
13 

14 
19 
27 
11 
22 
30 
22 

27 

6 
80 

9 

46 
19 
19 
19 
23 

8 
88 

2 

9 
10 
31 

9 
22 
27 
15 

7 

57 
29 
10 
9 

25 
19 
29 

7 
18 
15 
13 
2-4 

1 
6 

21 


30 
















10 
















11 
14 
3 

12 
-15 
37 

6 
13 

9 
13 

16 


"ii 
3 

13 
2 


2 
29 
4 

11 
20 
42 

8 
15 

2 
21 

21 
1 

48 
3 

"2 
1 
1 
3 

11 
1 

2 


32 
5 

21 

85 

44 

9 

26 
15 
11 

14 
7 
9 
10 
7 

88 
42 
25 
42 
2 
18 
88 

6 


9 
21 
15 

2 

'"5 

■■■3 

7 
28 

13 
1 

20 

"e 

6 
10 
14 

4 

""7 


39 
6 

1 

11 
24 
49 
19 
25 
22 
22 

17 

6 
26 

9 
12 
26 
22 

6 
28 

1 
38 
18 

4 
1 
1 
8 
10 
23 
14 

46 
63 

£0 
1 

11 
10 
23 

6 


34 








1 
21 


S 

1 

1 


1 


22 
5 

.... 

1 


1 




3 


1 


1 




46 










27 




1 










44 




M 
















88 












3 


21 
12 


23 




5 
3 




3 
1 


20 
6 


1 


Cliickasaw 


1 
23 


Clayton 


18 




1 


6 




18 


29 


1 
1 

■"2 
5 


22 
41 














41 










41 














1 


5 
1 

29 
1 
7 

11 

5 


.30 










14 
















74 


Cherokee. 


"i 












3 

24 














88 
















22 
















7 




4 




15 


1 


"■3 


5 

'ii 

12 
2 


19 
6 
29 
17 
24 


10 

"13 

■■9 

1 

4 
.... 


20 
13 
41 
40 
15 

2 

29 

1 
1 


10 

2 

9 

28 

31 

2 

28 
80 
15 

1 

13 
10 
85 

8 


10 
2 
16 

1 
9 

1 

21 

14 

1 

1 

4 

"ii 
1 


2 




15 




2 
7 
4 




"6 


3 
18 

7 


8 




21 




7 




1 




2 




1 


21 

1 




24 


32 
2 
1 


21 


Floyd 

Franklin 


30 






41 
4 
















5 


1 


2 


22 
















28 




















48 
















1 






31 
















13 


Hardin 




1 










2 






4 

7 
17 
26 
23 

3 
42 

11 
15 


1 
5 
1 
7 
10 

""2 

21 


4 

■"8 
51 
25 

"37 

17 
15 


18 






22 




2 




3 


9 
16 






81 

7 
2 


2 


43 
5 


28 

'^0 










?,fi 


Ida 






















1 
1 


5 

14 






30 

32 

1 


1 

1 


25 
39 


4« 


Jasper 


2 




8 
22 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



17 



No. VI. 

Showing the Number of Schools Taught at the Salaries Named. 



























More than 






More than 








More than 




th'n 45 




More 


.$30 Less 




$35. 


$35 Less 




$40. 




$40 Less 


$45. 




$50. 


than 


than $35. 






than $40. 








than $45. 




th'n50 




$50. 


S 







a 


a 


a 


a 


a 


a 

01 


a 


a 

^^ 


a 


a 


g 


a 


a 


g 


a 


a 


a 


a 


a 


g' 




s 


a 

4^ 


a 




t. 


be 


<s 


%i 


M 


<p 




60 


1- 


l^ 


be 


u 


U 


t/3 




h 


61 


CD 


11 


u 


UJ 




6J 


CD 




60 






c 












a 












C 






C 


























































ri 






































































fe 


^ 


ft 


ici 


^ 


cn 


^ 


^ 


a 


^ 


^ 


a 

CD 


^ 


^ 


a 


1 


^ 


CD 


!i( 


^ 


tn 


fa 


^ 


DO 


fa 


^ 


GD 


17 


If 


18 




23 


8 




12 






2 


1 


























1 


1 




35 


32 


45 


84 


88 


36 


19 


31 


16 




4 


































21 


57 


24 


10 


24 


19 




6 






6 


1 


































24 

2 


1 

1 


4 


4 

2 






2 

1 


>. . . . 




1 
1 


































10 












34 


27 


28 


10 


36 


17 


2 


25 


t> 




14 


r 









1 


2 






















43 


26 


31 


13 


53 


12 




14 


7 




17 


































2 


36 




7 


oo 




2 


8 






1 


1 
































27 


46 


81 


19 


29 


26 


8 


16 


9 




10 


































9 


9 
b 


1 
12 


7 
S 


69 

9 


4 
9 


2 
4 


10 
10 


2 

2 




19 

1 






1 




























10 










6 








2 














































11 






2 






1 






1 


































4e 


46 
30 


47 
3 


12 

: 


16 
22 


20 


10 
3 


38 

1 


20 




11 
2 








1 




'i 


i 




















9 


1 








m 


24 


16 


9 


18 


6 




12 


1 




8 


































IR 


22 
56 


20 
37 


2 

7 


4 

25 


4 
11 






































1 


1 


1 


44 


8 


Ifi 


16 




7 


1 


1. . 






















2S 


63 


43 


4 


21 


15 




7 




3 


8 


5 
































33 


35 
21 


49 

10 


20 
5 


23 
41 


20 

7 


9 
2 


14 
25 


16 


1 


13 
27 


3 




























"i 




28 


29 


27 


,52 


46 


62 


10 


21 


10 


8 


12 


1? 




9. 


3 


























18 


22 


9 


6 


2 


1 




2 








































6 


1 


5 


13 


13 


11 




65 


2 


1 


36 




1 


1 






9 


1 




1 
















32 


15 


37 


26 


39 


24 


9 


20 


12 


5 


22 


5 
































10 


6 


13 


12 


18 


30 


1 


1 


2 


4 


10 


3 


1 


? 




























13 


12 

8 


1 
9 


1 
9 


8 
15 










1 

5 


2 
11 


'"3 




■3 




"3 


1 
3 


2 


"i 






'2 


■? 










14 


6 


5 


4 






5 


25 




1 


5 




1 










































4 


44 


3 


17 


25 


5 




3 








































2 


16 


1 


3 


1 




1 






2 


1 


































2 


31 


5 




12 


2 




16 


6 


2 


3 


8 




3 






1 






















2 


17 




2 


16 


2 


1 


3 


2 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 




























fi 


59 


4 




2 




1 


3 






1 


1 
































85 


56 


38 


6 


27 


3 




16 




4 


1 


6 
































44 


44 


68 


33 


38 


29 


1 


4 


2 




14 


































19 


12 
22 


5 
41 


19 
15 


21 
31 


46 
18 


16 
2 


27 

25 


3 


8 
2 


16 

8 


6 








3 


2 


4 








1 


1 


1 








40 










15 


35 


32 


24 


22 


21 


4 


26 


5 




8 


































29 


80 


43 


27 


42 


31 


1.^ 


20 


9 


7 


35 


6 




4 




1 


5 


1 










1 


1 


1 


1 




30 


86 


43 


32 


23 


24 


16 


21 


W 




12 


8 
































25 


26 


28 


8 


21) 


16 


10 


17 


17 


4 


10 


2 




1 


1 




? 






















6 


8 


10 


14 


26 


24 




3 


■ 6 


4 


S 


3 
































1 


15 
57 


1.3 


7 


32 

7 


3 




12 
10 




2 


9 
2 












4 
















1 






16 














'M 


52 
18 


35 
19 


8 
38 


11 
42 


8 
51 


1 
15 


6 
6 


2 
6 




















1 


















15 


27 


30 


22 
















4 


31 

18 

27 


7 
"84 


6 

5 
2 


42 

12 
47 


4 

I 


1 


22 

1 
53 


! 




22 

5 

1 






1 






1 
























4 






46 


1 


1 




.. ..1 





18 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE 
Monthly Salaries Paid Rural Teachers for the School Year 1903-04, 





More than 
$20 S20 Less 
than $25 


125 


More than 
$25 Less 
than $30 


am 


County. 


a 


u 


e 


a 


a 

u 

a 


a 

to 

a 
•E 
ft 

QQ 


a 


a 

0) 


a 

bo 
a 
'C 
a 


a 

u 


a 

u 

a 


a 

b 
(D 
.♦^ 

a 

•■H 
U 
ft 

CD 


a 

1 


a 

u 
u 

a 


a 

•c 

ft 

QQ 


Jefferson 


2 




2 


1 

5 
2 

3 

2 

1 


3 


1 

2 

1 

17 


49 
47 
15 

26 

24 
18 

8 

7 


1 
1 
1 

2 

28 

"1 
4 


46 
36 
13 

25 

33 

17 
3 
14 

1 

2 

1 

13 

"io 

"22 

"9 

2 


14 
43 
40 

10 
4 

6 
53 
5 
6 
2 

16 
11 
10 

"ie 

9 
2 
18 

1 

3 


'"s 
4 

5 

8 

5 

... 

.... 
6 

""i 

7 
10 


8 
45 
22 

18 

1 
46 

5 
11 

3 

15 
3 

17 

'26 

7 
1 

17 
8 

5 
1 


12 
36 

37 

35 
39 

9 
33 
55 
23 
10 

30 
51 
25 
10 
11 
15 
79 
10 
28 
19 

11 
6 

38 
24 
58 
13 
4li 
10 
47 

38 

25 
2 
16 
19 
31 

46 

44 

22 

17 

22 
21 
69 
12 
36 
4 
13 
49 
10 
20 

2713 


11 
46 
18 

24 

37 

20 
8 
3 
7 
5 

3 
3 
12 

"22 
59 

28 
4 
£ 

16 
3 

"h 

41 
9 
3 

"2 

30 

28 
.... 

16 
1 

9 

32 

38 

19 
11 

4 

27 
16 
21 
19 

9 
21 

7 

625 


?7 




4R 


Jones 








62 


Keokuk 


1 






31 




25 




10 


2 


11 


7 


Linn 


39 


Louisa 








48 


Lucas . 














20 


Lyon 














11 


Madison 














11 

1 
12 

"io 
"26 

9 

26 


"3 
"4 

"i 


44 


Mahaska 














58 


Marion 






2 

"i 


3 




7 


22 


Marshall 

Mills 

Mitchell 


"l 




2 

7 
19 


Monona 


1 


.... 


'"8 


63 




] 




2 


36 


Montgomery 


50 


Muscatine 








1 




1 


21 


O'Brien 

Osceola 








11 
1 


Page 
















42 


Palo Alto 


















17 
8 
6 


1 

7 
4 


26 
9 
1 
3 


26 


Plymouth 


















57 


Pocahontas 


















1 


29 


Polk 














1 




43 


Pottawattamie 






























12 

17 
10 




5 

12 
9 


14 
25 
26 


8 
12 


7 
33 
26 


48 


Ringgold 

Sac 










32 
19 


Scott 














2 


Shelby 


























14 


Sioux 














2 




3 


4 
6 

32 

14 
20 
9 
18 
25 
9 
14 
4 
6 
4 

14 
13 

1422 


1 

5 

21 

1 

"5 
4 

12 
4 

"i 

4521 


4 

7 

14 

7 

7 

2 
15 
11 
13 

7 
14 

1 
18 

2 

1305 


18 


Story 














38 
















9 

1 

11 
36 

4 
24 
19 
34 

3 

"'7 


9 
1 

"2 


4 
1 

12 

43 

12 

31 

7 

49 
3 
4 
9 


67 


Taylor 














41 


Union 








16 
li 

'ib 

■""7 


1 
"2 


5 
17 

""i 

"io 


26 


Van Buren 


6 


1 


8 

"2 
"4 


2 


Wapello 


44 
25 
61 
5 


Washington 

Wayne 


"3 




Webster 


30 


Winnebago 










1 


2 
5 


19 


Winneshiek 






1 




26 


Woodbury 






43 


Worth 


















3 

978 


29 


Wright 














2 
962 


144 


34 


Total 


*75 


5 


*88 


199 


22 


233 


3784 



• In addition to these footings there were three fall terms and ten spring terms taught 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



19 



No. VI — Continued. 

Showing the Number of Schools Taught at the Salaries Named. 



More than 








More than 






More than 


More 

th'n 45 
Less 
th'n 50 




More 


$30 Less 




$85 




135 L<?ss 




$40. 


$40 Less 


$45. 


$50. 


than 


than S35. 








than $40. 






than $45. 






$50. 


a 


a 

a) 


a 


a 


a 


a 

aj 


a 


a 
1 


a 


a 


a 


a 

u 


a 




a 


a 


a 

be 
ID 


a 

4) 


a 


a 


a 


a 


a 

01 


a 


a 


a 


a 

(D 


fe 


i^ 


tao 


u 


u 




« 


1^ 


M 




U 


te 




t. 


be 


n 


1. 


tao 


01 


(4 


610 


01 




6c 


a 


t. 


tn 






a 






a 






a 










4^ 


a 










i^ 








a 






a 


s 


ti 


u 


;r3 


a 


^ 


H 


u 


^ 


c 


h 


^ 


s 


t.1 


^ 


fl 


^ 


;5 


a 


E^ 


■zi 


C 


h 


^ 


c 




^ 


^ 


a. 


£ 


^ 




£ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


03 


^ 


^ 


ft 




^ 


ft 




^ 


ft 

CD 


^ 


$ 


ft 


fa 


&: 


ft 
en 




10 


2 


2 


34 


1 




1 


11 




22 








, 




1 






















H 


30 


7 


1 


85 







17 






5 


1 










3 










1 




1 




i 




25 


21 


26 


2 


41 


1 




27 


1 




6 


























1 








5 


27 


3 


23 


23 


13 


5 


8 


3 


5 


26 


4 










2 


1 




















81 


101 


98 


25 


38 


40 


9 


17 


26 


6 


6 


10 


































8 
33 


1 
16 


4 
6 


11 
55 


6 
12 


1 
2 


1 
18 


1 
1 


3 

2 


4 
17 


1 
2 










1 






1 


1 








9 


2 




17 










2 




6 


11 


6 


42 


7 




6 




1 


17 


1 
































4 


6 


3 


6 


28 


5 




2 




1 


3 


1 
































20 


32 


23 


24 


29 


34 


9 


9 


7 


14 


14 


15 




















i 


1 


i 








6 


17 


9 


8 


49 


1 


1 


3 






1 


































14 


4 


8 


15 


63 


15 


3 


4 


4 


6 


23 


8 










•^ 














2 








12 


22 


4 


7 


18 


2 


1 


8 




4 


7 








5 




1 










1 


1 










22 


I 


18 


67 


22 


70 


14 


25 


22 


9 


61 


10 








r- 


7 


4 








1 


8 








1 


12 


6 
15 


10 


39 
2 


22 
21 


27 
2 


3 
2 


16 
2 


16 


11 
2 


26 
3 


14 
3 








2 


6 


3 








1 


2 

1 


2 








80 


H« 


88 


8 


80 


10 






? 


1 


? 


(i 




















1 












6 


7 


3 


3 


30 


4 


I 


5 


3 




2 


2 
































17 


34 

7 

50 


13 
3 

43 


15 
12 

21 


40 

27 

21 


10 
16 

28 


19 


10 

7 

21 


26 


6 
3 

r* 


14 
13 

13 


5 
4 

9 










2 


3 


1 


1 




1 




1 


1 


















58 












11 


8 


12 


26 


44 


33 




, 6 


9 


2 


6 


6 
































19 


5 


8 


48 


42 


56 


2 


20 


4 




44 


1 


1 
























1 




1 


16 


52 


28 


7 


11 


7 


5 


12 


6 


1 


5 












1 


1 




















25 


28 


35 


21 


23 


17 


5 


20 


11 


5 


11 


1 
































19 


53 


3« 


11 


16 


15 


21 


80 


19 


4 


7 


6 
































10 


7 


15 


48 


49 


49 


12 


17 


7 


13 


46 


15 










4 






















28 


22 


20 


88 


79 


98 


1(1 


15 


10 


24 


43 


39 
































W 


14 
50 


25 

26 


4 

5 


48 
27 


12 
4 


7 
2 


21 

5 


8 

1 




20 












2 




















1 


21 


1 












52 


33 


44 


5 


29 


10 


9 


14 


14 




12 


































1 


1 


1 


26 


1 


25 


1 


1 


1 


16 


34 


.36 










19 


7 








2 


8 


2 


8 


4 


8 


13 


7 


14 


37 


40 


82 


2 




1 


10 


29 


16 
































65 


85 


60 


34 


45 


41 


28 


44 


29 


4 


10 


4 










1 






















29 


5 


25 


21 


48 


28 


8 


21 


8 




33 


1 


























1 


1 


1 


46 


49 


28 


2 


32 


31 


4 


35 


7 


2 


9 


2 
































4 


17 


19 


24 


31 


12 


2 


3 


1 


2 


19 


































39 


36 


43 


7 


20 


10 


1 


1 


1 


3 





1 




2 


1 










1 


1 








2 


2 


2 


9 


34 


4 




4 


1 








5 


4 


2 




1 






1 






















12 


15 


5 


26 


18 


13 


8 


12 




10 


15 


7 




2 


1 


2 


9 


1 








2 


2 


2 








3 


17 


2 


9 


45 


fi 


1 


9 


1 


1 


S' 








1 


2 


1 


2 










1 


1 




1 




3 


13 


6 


5 


56 


31 


1 


13 


1 




34 












1 






















2 


27 




3 


16 


1 


2 


2 




1 


6 


1 
































35 


46 


44 


31 


68 


47 


18 


84 


22 


4 


9 


7 
































15 


25 


31 


4 


18 


12 


2 


2 


3 






































4 


36 


33 




18 


2 




20 


2 




4 










i 














1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


16 


13 


24 


47 


68 


54 


8 


8 


4 


29 


55 


36 








6 


7 






















6 


82 


9 


8 


16 


28 


1 


8 


3 






1 
































38 


37 


57 


14 


33 


16 


11 


89 


5 


6 


10 


3 
































1816 


3296 


2018 


1454 


2857 


1660 


428 


1270 


514 


343 


1225 


310 


18 


59 


23 


41 


95 


26 


4 


4 


2 


16 


25 


17 


15 


20 


14 



in Iowa last year for less than $20 per month. 



20 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



TABLE No. VII. 
Teachers Tenure in One Room Rural School? 



"S. 

« ? u 

sw !-' ? 
O S 
p" — 

oj 5^ 3 
S 2 2 



County. 



a lis 






O 03 5* 

'ji <u a 



1-^ 



^2 

m « l>. 

oSS 

O (S w 

00 Oi C 

.« ^• 

-3° 

CO P 



County. 



o o 


oS 






? 0) 


1^ 




^ o t~ 


fl o 


•S?^ 




.2 S 

O !U 
2 m 


aj to ^. 
O S « 

o 1 tat 


m ? 03 


»: « C 








o C 3 


B 3i <S 




a^.^ 
z,^^ 



Audubon . . . 
Adams. 

Adair 

Appanoose. . 
Allamakee. . 

Benton 

Buchanan . . . 
Butler . . . 

Boone 

Black Hawk 
Buena Vista 
Bremer 

Cass 

Clayton 

Carroll 

Crawford . . . 

Calhoun 

Cerro Gordo 

Clay 

Clinton 

Cherokee . . . 
Chickasaw . . 

Clarke 

Cedar 

Dallas 

Dickinson . . 

Davis 

Des Moines . 

Decatur 

Delaware . . . 
Dubuque. 

Emmet 

Payette 

Floyd . . . 
Franklin. . . . 
Fremont . 

Greene 

Grundy 

Guthrie 

Hamilton 

Hancock . . . 

Hardin 

Harrison. . . . 

Henry 

Howard 

Humboldt .. 

Ida 

Iowa 

Jackson 

Jasper 

Jefferson 

Johnson 



49 


30 


Iti 


24 


.58 


40 


40 


1 


■M 


2 


5.S 


30 


(50 


34 


47 


11 


m 


23 


oS 


34 


HO 


8 


30 


16 


69 


27 


52 


9 


20 


o 


]fi 


19 


M 


38 


59 


27 


m 


21 


71 


6 


49 


39 


2(t 


10 


fi4 


9 


57 


15 


.55 


20 


22 


1 


42 


3 


27 


6 


48 


8 


47 


12 


19 


2 


18 


5 


54 


24 


52 


18 


75 


19 


68 


16 


50 


37 


49 


18 


76 


43 


63 


24 


48 


6 


41 


19 


85 


15 


55 


20 


56 


15 


41 


8 


37 


25 


51 


28 


25 


9 


67 


33 


46 


21 


67 


36 



Jones 



Keokuk . 
Kossuth . 



Lee — 
L nn . 
Louisa . 
Lucas 
Lyon . . 



Madison 

Mahaska 

Marion 

Marshall 

Mills 

Mitchell 

Monona 

Monroe 

Montgomery 
Muscatine . . . 



O'Brien 
Osceola 



Palo Alto 

Plymouth. . . . 

Pocahontas 

Polk 

Pottawattamie 
Poweshiek 



Ringgold. 



Sac 

Scott . . 
Shelby 
Sioux . . 
Story. . 

Tama . . 
Taylor 

Union.. 



Van Buren. 



Wapello . . . . 

Warren 

Washington 
Wayne 

Webster 

Winrebago . 
Winneshiek 
Woodbury . . 

Worth 

Wright 



Total. 



42 


64 


51 


57 


62 


86 


41 


43 


45 


63 


2£ 


33 


12 


29 


33 


40 


13 


34 


3C 


40 


31 


39 


37 


65 


41 


31 


28 


30 


31 


66 


40 


49 


27 


55 


22 


24 


33 


44 


24 


28 


50 


59 


20 


40 


59 


45 


45 


71 


53 


65 


49 


78 


23 


49 


21 


58 


46 


55 


29 


24 


26 


36 


84 


51 


18 


53 


53 


66 


13 


44 


30 


34 


29 


58 


3 


55 


15 


17 


28 


74 


35 


46 


51 


80 


34 


28 


35 


48 


42 


83 


27 


28 


36 


61 


3,409 


4,836 



COUNTRY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 



21 



TABLE No. VIII. 

School Tax Levies in Twenty Counties, Showing the Levies in the County Seat and the 
Average Levies in the Country Districts. 





Average Levies for 
County Excluding 
TownorCityDists. 


County Seat. 


Levies in County 
Seat. 


Covinty. 






'en 


a 

O 

6C . . 

CO tn 




7 

7 

7.1 

9.7 

7.0 

4 
10 

8 

7 

7.2 
10.4 

6 6 

7.6 
10 

6.3 

7.8 

8.2 

8.7 
6 


2.5 

2 

2.8 

2.8 

2.8 

2 

3 

1 

3.5 

2.7 

3.8 

2 1 

1.9 

3 

17 

2 

2 

1.6 

2.2 

1.7 


Audubon 


13.7 

13.9 

12.6 

11.8 

14 

11 

18 

20 

18 

21 

18 

11.9 

18.2 

15 

19.8 

19.3 

10.9 

15 

14.2 

15 


7.3 




Vinton 






6.4 




; Independence 

. Atlantic 

Tipton. 


5.9 


Ca«8 


10 

4.2 




Burlin gton 


5.8 




Hamburg 

Jefferson 

Sidney 


5 


Greene 


6 
10 


Hancock 

Mitchell 


Garner 


7.7 
4.9 




Albia 


5.3 




Knoxville 

Red Oak 

Le Mars 

Davenport 


9 


Montgomery 

Plymouth 

Scott 


10.4 
7.1 
6.5 

12 


Washington — 
Winneshiek.' 




4.8 


Decorah 


6.4 



Note 1. The average levies in country districts last year, as reported by seventy 
county superintendents was : Teachers' Fund, 7. 9 mills, Contingent Fund, 2. 6 mills. 

The average levies in 885 towns and cities reporting was : Teachers' Fund, 15.) mills. 
Contingent Fund, 6. 5 mills. 

Note 2. For the school year ending September, 1904, there were 9, 888 covmtry children 
enrolled in the graded schools of Iowa towns and cities, the total tuition paid being 
.$114,537.16. 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 



24 COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM IN IOWA. 



AN ADDRESS 



Delivered before the tiftieth Annual Meeting of the Iowa State Teachers^ 

Association , 



BY 

John F. Riggs. 
Superintendent of Pablic Instruction. 



It shall be my purpose in this address to discuss the rural school problem 
as it is presented in Iowa today. This must not be construed as an admis- 
sion on my part that all questions pertaining to the graded schools are settled. 
I pass by this class of schools, not that I think them ideal, or that I believe 
them to present no problems worthy of serious attention. The graded 
school has its problems, but in my opinion they are at this moment far less 
urgent than those presented by the rural school, and this must serve as my 
excuse for confining my remarks to the conditions and needs of the thou- 
sands of one-room country schools, where more than half of the children of 
the state must receive their elementary schooling which, with most of them, 
is all the schooling they ever receive.' 

These country children are in most respects most happily situated. The 
beauties of nature smile upon them, and her myriad voices call to them in 
the solitude of field or forest. They have a healthful environment. The 
example of virture and honor in the home and in the community is in the 
main before them. Duties many and continuous await them, and their 
labor is directed to definite ends. They have time for quiet reflection and 
opportunities to use their reason and judgment. Their environment is well 
suited to develop a strong body and an active, vigorous mind. No class of 
our youth gives greater promise of usefulness. These country children de- 
serve and have a right to demand school privileges in every way equal to 
those accorded to the children of towns and cities. That the school privi- 
leges at present accorded them are not equal to those provided in the graded 
schools of our town and cities can not be questioned by anyone at all familar 
with the facts. 

I am not unmindful that there are many country schools superior to some 
graded schools. Where twenty-five to thirty country boys and girls meet a 
strong, tactful, resourceful teacher whose heart is in her work, and who is 
aglow, with enthusiam, there we will find a school worthy the name , and a 
teacher who is doing a service equal to that of any teacher in a graded school- 
Every county in Iowa has a few such teachers and a few such schools. But 



COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 25 

in a great majority of country schools the conditions are such that superior 
work is impossible. 

What are these conditions? 

First, small schools and irregular attendance. 

Second, schoolhouses with meager equipment. 

Third, teachers often inexperienced and of inadequate scholarship. 

Fourth, frequent change of teachers. 

Fifth, a school year more than one month less, on the average, than 
prevails in towns and cities, and no provision for instruction beyond the 
elementary grades. 

Sixth, poor classification. 

From reports recently received from secretaries of the rural schools of the 
state it is shown that last year 65 in every 100 of our rural schools had an aver- 
age daily attendance during the fall term of 15 or less; 62 in every 100 had a 
like small attendance during the winter term, and 69 in every 100 had a like 
small attendance during the spring term. 

Or, if we take the number of schools where the average daily attendance 
was more than 20, we find that during the fall term it was but 15 per cent; 
during the winter term 16 per cent, and during the spring term 12 per cent of 
the whole. These figures are based on reports received from 10,019 out of a 
total of 12,521 rural districts. 

Or, looked at in another way, we find the total number of persons 
between the ages of five and twenty-one years in the 12,521 rural districts of 
the state to be 382,200, or an average of 30.6 for each school corporation 
employing but one teacher, while in corporations where a graded school is 
maintained the number of persons between the ages of five and twenty-one 
years aggregates 341,166, or an average of 47.2 for each teacher employed 
in these corporations. 

But these figures do not tell the full story of the inequality, for it must be 
remembered that nearly ten thousand country boys and girls included in the 
country enumeration are enrolled in the graded schools as tuition pupils, 
besides many more in the academies and the preparatory departments of 
colleges. It follows, therefore, that the percentage of enrollment is greater 
in the graded than the ungraded school, and we know the attendance is 
much more regular. We assign to the graded school teacher, on the aver- 
age, very nearly double the number of pupils assigned to the teacher in the 
country school. The trouble is further aggravated from the fact that, as a 
rule, the very small school suffers in interest and enthusiasm, and in conse- 
quence the percentage of attendance is abnormally low. 

Again, the country school suffers in comparison with the average graded 
school in the matter of equipment. Globe, dictionary, wall maps and a 
liberal supply of supplementary reading books are seldom missing from the 
graded school and seldom found in the ungraded school. The schoolhouse 
itself is often neglected and the schoolroom uninviting. 

AN ARMY OF INEXPKRIENCHD TEACHERS. 

But the rural school suffers more from inexperienced and poorly prepared 
teachers than any other one cause. Last year 3,479 certificates were issued 
in Iowa to persons who have never taught. Out of a total of 22,845 certifi- 
cates issued by county superintendents, but 3,321 were first-class certificates. 



26 COUJSTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 

Now it is the very common practice with school boards in our larger 
towns and cities to require as one of the conditions of election that the appli- 
cant hold a first-class certificate, and that she show successful experience as 
a teacher. 

Out of a total of 3,974 teachers employed last year in 134 towns and cities of 
Iowa, all but 82 were experienced teachers. Five hundred four were grad- 
uates of some state normal school; 719 were college or university graduates, 
and 2,269 were graduates of some academy or private normal school or of a 
high school maiintaining a four-year course. In addition to these teachers em- 
ployed in the larger towns, there were as many more employed in the other 
graded schools of the state. A smaller, yet large per cent of these also were, 
no doubt, trained and experienced teachers. Where were the 19,524 holders 
of second-grade and third-grade certificates, 3,479 of them without experi- 
ence? Most of them were employed in the country schools. 

I hasten to say that not all teachers in the country districts are with little 
or no experience and of meager education. Some of our very best teachers 
labor from choice in the country. And then it often happens that the young 
teacher, with her first school in a remote country district, does a work of the 
very highest merit. I am persuaded that much of the teaching done in the 
one-room country schools will bear favorable comparison with the best teach- 
ing in our cities. No teacher who labors in the country need apologize for 
that fact; neither should she feel that the work given her to do is of any less 
importance than that undertaken in the more pretentious city position. But 
after all this is said, the fact remains that a very large per cent of the 
country teachers are without professional training, that some of them, 
unfortunately, possess very limited scholarship, and that many of them are 
immature and inexperienced. 

The country school suffers further from the frequent change of teachers. 
The more than 7,000 teachers employed in the graded schools of the state are 
employed for the full year, beginning with the fall term, and it is the com- 
mon practice to re-elect the successful ones from year to year. This practice 
does not prevail in the country. In 4,836 country districts in Iowa last year, 
two different teachers were employed, and in an additional 1,808 country 
districts three different teachers were employed to teach the same school at 
different seasons of the year. This frequent change of teachers results in 
enormous waste. No school is up to its maximum of efficiency when teachers 
and pupils are strange. This loss is particularily great in the country school 
where the classification is less perfect and where the teacher requires con- 
siderable time in which to determine the status of the individual pupils as to 
advancement and as to ability for work. Now if this breaking in process 
must be gone through with every two or three months, it will readily be 
seen that the loss to the schools from this cause alone is very great. 

And, then, our country boys and girls are not offered school privileges 
for so many months in the year as is common in the towns and cities. Of the 
770 schools in Iowa employing two or more teachers, 31 were in session last 
year over nine months , 630 we re in session nine months , and 109 were in session 
less than nine months. But in the country districts, out of a total of 10,019 
reporting, 1,599 schools were in session last year seven months or less, and 
of this number 469 were in session but six months; 6,462 were in session 
more than seven months and less than nine, and but 1,958 were in session 



COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 27 

nine months. That is to say 87 per cent of the graded schools of Iowa were 
in session nine months or over, and 19 per cent of the country schools were 
in session nine months, and none for a longer period. 

THE MATTER OF CLASSIFICATION. 

Furthermore, the country school loses in comparison with the graded 
school in the matter of classification. Where all the classes in from six to 
eight grades must come before one teacher, the periods for recitation must 
be so short as to impair the efficiency of the recitation; and then the teacher, 
by giving attention to so large a number of subjects, can not do the effective 
work that would be possible were her energies centered on the work of a few 
grades instead of on many. Again, the classes in fully three-fourths of 
our country schools are exceedingly small, in hundreds of instances contain- 
ing but one pupil. In such cases all the instruction becomes individual. 
Such a condition is unfortunate in any school. While individual instruc- 
tion should have a large place in every school and the enrollment should 
never be so great as to preclude it, there is yet a value in class instruction 
that is lost to the pupil who must recite by himself. Children learn from 
one another. In a class of pupils there is the contact of mind with mind, 
the spirit of emulation is awakened, the interest is sustained, and advance- 
ment is more rapid. 

Besides all this, the children of the towns and cities are oflfered a free 
high school course of from two to four years, which the country children are 
denied, unless they pay for it themselves and go away from home to get it. 
Last year 3,932 children from the country were enrolled as tuition pupils in 
the grades of our town and city schools, and 5,956 were thus enrolled in the 
high schools, — a total of 9,888 and these country children paid to the cities 
in tuition more than $114,000, nearly the whole of it from their own pockets 
or the pockets of their parents. The figures I have thus far given in this 
address will, I believe, convince any unbiased mind that, so far as school 
privileges are concerned, the country child is placed, in comparison with 
the city child, at a great disadvantage. A smaller per cent of his teachers 
are trained and experienced; he must suffer the annoyance and loss incident 
to frequent change of teachers; he loses in social privilege because of the 
prevalent small school; he often loses the inspiration of numbers in class 
work; his school year is shorter and he has no high school privileges in his 
home district. In view of these conditions no one, I think, will deny that 
we have a country school problem in Iowa. 

I can take the time today to discuss but one or two of the questions 
involved in that problem. 

It is my belief that a teacher can do her most effective work with a school of 
about two dozen well classified pupils. In sach a school the classes will be 
large enough to insure class enthusiasm and the spirit of emulation, and at 
the same time small enough to afford the teacher opportunities for individual 
instruction. Many educators would assign to the teacher not less than 
thirty pupils, and some would make the number forty. Very few, I am 
sure, would hold that a school of twenty- four too large. But if such there be, 
certainly when the school is reduced below twenty, no one will be found 
who will deny that it is too small for the most effective work. 



^0 COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 

And yet we find in 60 in every 100 rural schools of the state the enroll- 
ment for the past school year was 20 or less, and in 85 in every 100 the aver- 
age daily attendance was 20 or less. 

There maybe those who consider this condition accidental and liable soon 
to change. True, the school population in any community varies to some 
extent from year to year. But it must be remembered that economic forces 
are at work tending to reduce the rural population of the state in relation to 
the towns, rather than to increase it, and that these forces have been at work 
for a generation. 

The past thirty years have witnessed a phenomenal growth of cities both 
in this and in other lands. In America they have also witnessed a marked 
increase in the size of farms, and a more than corresponding decrease in 
rural population. For the city has attracted to it the young men and young 
women by the tens of thousands, while the older people have as a rule 
remained on the farm. Then, labor saving machinery has come in to sup- 
plant much of the hand labor required a generation ago. It is said that four 
men with improved machinery can now do the work that formerly required 
the labor of fourteen men. One of the results is shown in the constantly 
increasing size of farms. For the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 the average 
size of farms for the United States as a whole increased 9.8 per cent, while 
the increase in Iowa for the same period was 14.4 per cent. 

For the ten years ending in 1900, Iowa increased in population nearly a 
third of a million; but the increase was chiefly in the incorporated towns and 
cities which, in 1900, contained 43.6 per cent of our people, — a gain of 7 per 
cent in ten years. 

TEN THOUSAND COUNTRY CHILDREN IN CITY SCHOOLS. 

The school population in country districts, already depleted by the opera- 
tion of economic laws, has been still further reduced, as I have shown, by 
the attendance of nearly 10,000 country boys and girls in the city schools. 
And then there is scarcely a town in the state where a first class graded school 
is maintained but one or more families will be found who have moved to the 
town from the country for the express purpose of schooling their children. 

I trust the time may come when, because of the larger returns from 
farming, and because of the greater advantages of farm life, farming will 
become more intensive, the size of farms be reduced and the rural popula- 
tion be increased. But the tendency at the present time is unmistakably in 
the direction of yet larger farms, and that means that the present status of 
rural population will suffer little change, and that what change there may 
be will be in the direction of a further decrease rather than an increase in 
rural population. 

The problem, then, before the small school corporations of the state is 
whether the little schools are to be continued or whether school district 
boundaries are to be so changed as to greatly reduce the number of dis- 
tricts. This is a question each community must settle for itself. The legis- 
lature may a-id should remove all hindrances to the consolidation of contigu- 
ous districts where such consolidat on is desired by the people of the dis- 
tric s in interest. Further than this legislation should not go, for local inde- 
pendence in the control of the school is a fundamental principle in America 
that we do well to guard. 



COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 29 

While, in my judgment, consolidation of schools and transportation of 
pupils at public expense is the rational solution of the country school prob- 
lem in Iowa, I want to see this solution applied where conditions demand it 
through the awakened interest of the people in the welfare of their schools. 
I have presented and, as I believe, without exaggeration, some of the weak- 
nesses that cripple the efficiency of many of our country schools. A wise 
and liberal policy on the part of the school boards will remove some of the 
weaknesses. The schoolhouse may be made attractive, the surroundings 
made beautiful, the length of the school year increased, and one teacher, 
and she a corcpetent one, employed for the full year. All that is necessary 
to bring about these results is to raise more money for the support of the 
school and to expend it wisely. 

But some of the weaknesses I have depicted are inherent and will not be 
soon removed, unless a change is effected that will concentrate the interest 
and support on a few schools where we now have many. We live in an age 
of consolidation and co-operation. Your effort united with mine multiplies 
the power of us both. In this age no man liveth unto himself. The life of 
the community has extended itself over a wider area than formerly. The 
rural telephone has helped to widen the community interest. Everything 
suggests the wisdom of extending the school district borders to embrace sev- 
eral contiguous districts, and in this enlarged district to have one school 
center uniting the ene gits of all on a single school in which all are 
equally interested. I am awa e that it is said by many that the country 
schoolhouse is indispensable as a place of assembly for the people. But 
anyone familiar with rural life knows that the particular schoolhouse in a 
group of districts that seems most easy of access to the largest number of 
people comes to be the natural meeting place for the community, and that 
meetings, whether religious, educational or political, are held almost invaria- 
bly in this particular schoolhouse. The territory tributary to this natural 
center varies, it may include practically the entire township, or it may be 
much more restricted ia extent. But it is seldom co-extensive with the usual 
small school district. In such a territory the schoolhouse where public 
meetings are held by common consent constitutes the social center, and there 
is little need of any other schoolhouse in the same territory, either for school 
purposes or as a meeting place for the people. This community interest 
would be greatly strengthened if, instead of the small one-room school- 
house, an up-to-date building with library and commodious assembly hall 
should take its place. 

BENEFIT OF CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS. 

In such a school the social life of the children is widened; the circle of 
acquaintances is extended; classes are larger, and there is the contact of 
mind with mind that is absent in the class of one pupil. And, finally, the 
teacher is permitted to concentrate her energies on a few grades instead of 
teaching them all; to have comparatively few daily recitations instead of 
many, and to have twice as much time for the recitation as in the school 
where the whole range of classes must come before her. 

Many people have the impression that consolidation means the abandon- 
ing of country schools and the transportation of the children to cities and 
towns, where they are taken into an entirely different environment. But the 



30 COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 

consolidation I am contending for contemplates nothing of the kind. I 
believe the school environment in the country is, in many ways, superior to 
that in the city. I want the country school to remain in the country so far 
as possible, but I want it large enough for the employment of from two to 
five teachers, and with no teacher in charge of less than twenty-five nor more 
than thirty pupils. Such a school organization might cost the people less in 
dollars and cents, but the possible saving in money is not the ground upon 
which the change is urged. The end of consolidation is to get better schools 
and to multiply the benefits to the children. 

Consolidation commends itself to our favor because it will offer the oppor- 
tunity for proper classification, of a reasonable number of pupils to the 
teacher, of regular and punctual attendance, and hence the vast increase to 
the pupils of the benefits the school can bestow. 

The .small school serves but few people, and is supplied by the taxes 
raised on comparatively small amount of property. Neither the public inter- 
est nor the financial support is, therefore, likely to be such as to encourage 
the development of the school. While advancement is noted all around, in 
every business and in every department of human endeavor, the little coun- 
try school is likely to conform very closely to the type of school of a past 
generation. But unite the interests of a larger number of people in the 
school, and bring to its support the taxes on a larger aggregate of property, 
and better conditions will be speedih^ and easily secured. 

Union and co-operation alone will make possible the twentieth century 
school. We may project the nineteenth century school into the twentieth 
century, but the school that keeps pace with the times and meets the demands 
of the age must have the interest and financial support of many people and 
the services of a number of skilled teachers working in co operation. The 
school of the past generation was concerned chiefly with the intellectual 
development of the young, and little attention was given to the physical. 
But educators everywhere are now awakening to the need of manual train- 
ing. 

Hand work, the use of tools, the experimental study of plants and soils 
will take their place alongside the study of books and add immensely to the 
interest and practical value of the schools. But it is manifest that this 
enlarged usefulness can not be easily secured in the little isolated district. 
Neither is it possible for the school in such a district to be other than 
extremely elementary. The high school is as much the birthright of the 
country child as it is of the city child. But .it can come to the country child 
in the country only through consolidation. 

Along with the problem of the little school is the vexed teacher problem. 
I shall not discuss this problem today, only in so far as it is related to con- 
solidation of schools. Were it possible today to gather all the country 
children of Iowa into consolidated schools, more than 2,000 teachers could 
be eliminated and no one of those continued be given more than twenty-five 
pupils to instruct. At the present time county superintendents find it impos- 
sible to fill all their schools with competent teachers. It follows, therefore, 
that if we could dispense with 2,000 of the less competent persons now 
licensed in order to keep the schools open, there would be an immense gain 
to the schools. 



COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 31 

But as suggested a few moments ago, the initiative in the matter of 
country school consolidation, if taken at all, must be taken by the people in 
the local communities. The change, therefore, can not come suddenly. All 
the difficulties in the way, and there are difficulties, must be carefully 
weighed, the local conditions in each community consulted, and the benefits 
of the proposed changes proven to the people beyond dispute before the 
little districts will be abandoned and the larger school units established. I 
am glad this power rests with the people, for though changes sorely needed 
may be delayed, when they come they will be abiding and will have back of 
them the support of the people and will bespeak intelligent direction by the 
people. 

iowa's school possibilities. 

But while the realization of the highest possibilities of the country school 
will doubtless come through consolidation, let no one think that nothing can 
be done to improue the condition of the school under its present organiza- 
tion. The people in any district with awakened interest in the school can 
beautify the schoolhouse and grounds, render the schoolroom cheerful and 
attractive, have school furniture of the best, install a library of choice books, 
provide maps, globe, dictionary and a liberal supply of supplementary 
texts; maintain a nine months' school and employ a good teacher; and even 
without formal consolidation they may unite with the people of other 
districts in the support of a central room of higher grade, where the 
advanced pupils from several districts may assemble for the instruction they 
are now obliged to go to the towns to secure. More money raised for the 
support of the school will accomplish all this and I believe the people of 
this commonwealth are so enamored of their schools that additional expense 
will be willingly incurred if they may but know that the interests of the 
children demand the further sacrifice and that the revenue provided will be 
wisely and effectively expended. The average tax levy for school purposes 
in the towns and cities of Iowa is double the levy for like purposes in the 
country, the average levy for the teachers' and contingent fund combined 
baing last year 10.5 mills in the country and 21.6 mills in the cities. 

Iowa is a state of colossal wealth; her material resources are vast beyond 
computation; her riches abundant beyond the dream of avarice. A people 
so abundantly favored as are the people of Iowa can give their children 
educational advantages unsurpassed if not unequaled by any state of the 
Union. 

Vast as is the amount now raised by voluntary taxation for the support of 
the public schools, I balieve that we are at the threshold of an awakening that 
will greatly increase this aggregate. With a tax levy in country districts, not 
equal to that which now obtains in the cities of this state, but 60 or 65 per 
cent of such levy, country school boards will have a revenue at their dis- 
posal that can easily put the country school at the very forefront of educa- 
tional progress. 



66 COUNTRY SCHOOL PROBLEM. 

No class of American citizens excel the farmers, if indeed they equal 
them, in intelligence and character; and the farmers' children are, as some- 
one recently said, "the best educational material in all the land." Who 
may say that these people may not and will not rise to their opportunities and 
maintain schools in the country equal in duration and in equipment and 
equal if not superior in efficiency to the best schools now maintained in the 
cities. 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 35 



CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS IN IOWA. 



A special report recently made by the county superintendents of Iowa 
gives the following facts concerning consolidation of schools in this state. 

For the year ending September, 1904, thirty-five counties had consolida- 
tion in some form. In eighteen counties the consolidation was designed to 
be permanent, while in seventeen it was undertaken as a temporary expedi- 
ent. In all there were fifty-three permanently consolidated schools reported, 
and of these eighteen were consolidated within the year. In addition to the 
permanently consolidated schools, eighty schools were temporarily closed 
for the year. 

Eight hundred and fifty-nine children were transported at public expense 
and the aggregate amount paid for transportation of pupils was $14,321.65. 

Superintendents answer certain questions as follows: 

1. Are the people satisfied with the change? 
Sixteen, "Yes." 

One, "Decidedly yes." 
Seven, "With most, yes." 
One, "No." 
Ten, no answer. 

2. What effect has consolidation had on the per cent of pupils enrolled? 
Fifteen, "Enrollment greater." 

One, "No change." 
Eighteen, no answer. 

3. What effect on average daily attendance? 
Fifteen, "Average attendance greater." 
One, "No change." 

Eighteen, no answer. 

4. What effect on tardiness? 

Sixteen, "Cases of tardiness much less." 
Two, "No change." 
Seventeen, no answer. 

5. Has consolidation resulted in lengthening the school year? 
Eleven, "Yes." 

Five, "No change." 
Nineteen, no answer. 

6. Are better wages paid in consolidated schools? 
Thirteen, "Yes." 

Six, "No change." 
Sixteen, no answer. 



36 PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

7, What efifect has consolidation had on the general efficiency of the 
school? 

Seventeen, "Schools better. " 
One, "No, change." 
Seventeen, no answer. 

8. Has consolidation resulted in increasing the cost of maintaining the 
school? 

Nine, "Cost greater by from 2 to 20 per cent." 

Three, "Cost same." 

Four, "Cost less." 

Nineteen, no answer. 
The ten superintendents who failed to answer question "1", and twelve 
of those who did not answer questions "2" to "8" inclusive, have temporary 
consolidation only. The same is true of the one who gave a negative 
answer to question "1 . " 

CONSOLIDATION AND TRANSPORTATION. 

Ry J. C. Bennett, 

Deputy Superintendent Public Instruction. 

THE LAW. 

Section !J773. ' 'It (the school board) may • * ♦ determine the number of schools 
to be taught, * * » determine the particular school which each child shall attend, and 
designate the period each school shall be held beyond the time required by law. " 

Section 2774 " * ♦ * And when there will be a saving of expense, and children will 
also thereby secure increased advantages, it (the school board) may arrange with any 
person outside the board for the transportation of any child to and from school in the same 
or in another corporation, and such expenses shall be paid from the contingent fund. " 

Section 2806. "The board of each school corporation shall at its regular meeting in 
March, or at a special meeting called for that purpose between the time designated for 
such regular meeting and the third Monday in May, estimate the amount required for 
contingent fund, ♦ • * and such additional sum as may be necessary not exceeding 
five dollars for each person of school age for transporting children to and from school ; 

Section 2776. It (the school board) shall have power to maintain in each district one or 
more schools of a higher order, for the better instruction of all in the district prepared to 
pursue such a course of study, and it may establish graded or iinion schools and determine 
what branches shall be taught therein, • ♦ * and it may select a person who shall have 
general supervision of the schools in any district subject to the control of the board. " 

Section 2799, ' 'Independent districts located contigaous to each other may unite and 
form one and the same independent district in the manner following: At the written re- 
quest of any ten legal voters residing in each of said independent districts, or, if there be 
not ten, then a majority of such voters, their respective boards of directors shall require 
their secretaries to give at least ten days' notice of the time and place for a meeting of the 
electors residing in each of such districts, by posting written notices in at least five public 
places in each of said districts, at which meeting the electors shall vote by ballot for or 
against a consolidated organization of said independent districts, and, if a majority of 
the votes cast at the election in each district shall be in favor of uniting said districts 
the secretaries shall give similar notice of a meeting of the electors as provided for by law 
for the organization of independent districts including cities and towns. " (See sections 
2795 and 2796. ) 

NoTK— If the proposition carries, it is the duty of the secretaries of the 
several districts uniting, to determine upon a date and place, and give the 
usual notices for a meeting of the electors of the newly formed district for 
the purpose of choosing a board of directors. 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 87 

Ii the consolidat' ^n of two or more rural independent districts, three 
directors will "^« ^iiosen, one to serve until the next annual meeting, one 
until the second and one until the third annual meeting thereafter. 

If iMe newly formed district contains all or part of a town or city of the 
second citv^s, five directors shall be chosen, two to serve until the next annual 
meeting, two xxui.ll "-^e se^-i^ud and one until the third annual meeting there- 
after. 

Should the proposed district contain all or a part of a city of the first 
class or a city under special charter, seven directors shall be chosen, three of 
whom shall serve until the next annual meeting, two until the second and 
two until the third. (See sections 2754 and 2795) . 

Section 2V96. ' ' The organization of such independent districts shall be effected on or 
before the first day of August of the year in which it is attempted, and, when completed, 
* * * the board of such independent district shall fix the amount of all necessary taxes for 
school purposes, including schoolhouse taxes, at a meeting called for such purpose at 
any time before the third Monday of August, which shall be certified to the board of 
supervisors on or before the first Monday of September, and it shall levy said tax at the 
same time and in the same manner that other school taxes are required to be levied. " 

Section 2800. ' 'A township which has been divided into rural independent districts 
may be erected into a school township by a vote of the electors, to be taken upon the 
written request of one- third of the legal voters residing in such civil township . Upon pre- 
sentation of such written request to the township trustees, they shall call a meeting of the 
electors at tlie usual place or places of holding the township election, upon giving at least 
ten days' notice thereof by posting three written notices in each rural independent district 
in the township, and by publication in a newspaper, if one be published in such township, 
at which meeting the said electors shall vote by ballot for or against a school township 
organization. If a majority of the votes cast at such election be in favor of such organiza- 
tion, each rural independent district shall become a subdistrict of the school township, 
and shall organize as such on the first Monday in March following by the election of a di- 
rector, notice of which shall be given as in other cases by the secretary of each of the rural 
independent districts, and the directors so elected shall organize as a board of directors of 
the school township on the third Monday in March following." 

Section I. Chapter 89, Acts of the Twenty-seventh General Assembly. "When 
the boundary line between a school township and an independent citr or town 
district is not also the line between civil townships, such boundary may be changed 
at any time by the concurrence of the boards of directors; but in no case shall a 
forty acre tract of land, by the government survey, be divided ; and such sub-division shall 
be excluded or included as entire forties. The boundaries of a school township or the 
independent district may in the same manner be extended to the line between civil 
townships, even though by such change one of the districts shall be included within and 
consolidated with the other as a single district. " 

Section 2802. ' 'When any changes are made in the boundaries of any school corpora- 
tions, the boards of directors in ofltice at the time shall continue to act until the next 
regular school election, when the new corporation shall organize by the election of 
directors in accordance with the new boundaries, whereupon the new boards shall make 
an equitable division»of all assets and liabilities of the corporations affected; and if they 
can not agree, the matters upon which they differ shall be decided by disinterested arbi- 
trators, one selected by each board having an interest therein, and if the number thus 
selected is even then one s hall be added by the county superintendent, and the decision of 
the arbitrators shall be made in writing, either party having the right to appeal therefrom 
to the district court. " 

APPLICATION OF THE LAW. 

School Township.— The school township organization needs no change in order to 
provide for consolidation of the schools under the law. The first step toward consolidation 
is for the board to determine that there shall be one school, or a less number than formerly 
(section 2773), and provide a suitable building. 

If sufficient schoolhouse funds are not on hand to erect such a building, it will be np ,jes- 
3ary to submit to the electors at a regular meeting (sections 2748 and 2749) or at a special 



do PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

meeting called for that purpose (section 2750) a proposition to vote a schoolhouse tax, or 
to authorize the board to issue the necessary bonds. (Section 2812. ) 

When funds have been voted for this purpose, the board may then proceed to select a 
site and erect a building and make such other arrangements as may be necessary. 

The electors may, by petition, compel the board to submit a proposition to the electors 
at a regular meeting of the corporation. (Section 2749. ) The proposition submitted may be 
simply advisory as, ' 'Shall the district schools be closed and the pupils transported to a 
central school?" Or the proposition may be to vote a tax or to authorize the board to issue 
bonds for the purpose of erecting the necessary buildings. The latter plan is preferable, 
because, if the proposition carries, the necessary funds will be available at once. The 
ballot should contain the proposition or propositions just as advertised in the notices for 
the meeting. Underneath eac/i proposition should be placed the word "YES" and '"NO" 
with a square beside each. The voter may then indicate his wish by making a cross in the 
square opposite the word expressing his desire. ' 'FOR" and ' 'AGAINST" would answer 
the purpose as well as ' 'yes" and ' 'no. " (See also Lloyd townsliip, page 44. ) 

The board will continue to consist of one member from each sub-district. Should a 
a different number be desired, it may be secured by redistricting. (Section 2801) . Should 
the number of districts be reduced to one, the board will cons-ist of three members chosen 
by the electors of the entire corporation. (Section 2752. ) 

Independent Districts. — Should two or more contiguous independent districts 
desire to unite, it may be accomplished under authority of section 2799. This section 
applies to the uniting of independent city, town or village districts; rural independent 
districts; or independent city, town or village districts with rural independent districts. 
(Opinion by attorney-general, page 133, report 1902.) Township lines are not a bar to the 
operation of this section. 

Independent districts in the same civil township may consolidate by either of two 
methods as follows: 

First— If it is not desirable to organize a district so large as the civil township, two or 
more districts may unite under section 2799. I it is desired to unite all the independent 
districts in the township, it may be done under the same section; or 

Second— The rural independent districts in the same civil township may first unite to 
form a school township (section 2800), after which the process will be the same as indi- 
cated under ' 'school township." 

It may sometimes be advisable to unite an independent city, town or village district 
with all or part of a school township, or to unite a school township with all or part of an 
independent city, town or village district. This may be effected under section 1, chapter 
89, acts of the Twenty-seventh General Assembly, provided the boundary between the 
two distrir-ts is not also the boundary of the civil township. 

If the boundary of the independent city, town or village district is extended, to include 
all or a portion of the school townhip, the resulting district will be an independent city, 
town or village district; but should the boundary of the .school township be extended, 
the resulting corporation will be a school township. (Opinion attorney- general, page 
132, Report 1902. ) 



A STUDY OF THREE CONfSOLIDATED SCHOOLS, 



By John F. Riggs, 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
I 
Lake Township, Clay County. 
On January 10, 1905, in company with County Superintenent, H. F. 
Fillmore, I visited tlie Lake Township central school. The day was very 
cold, mercury registering ten degrees below zero. Our visit was unan- 
nounced and unexpected. We found 98 pupils present out of a total enroll- 
ment of 119. 

The school is located.'at the geographical center of the township, and 
the nearest building of any description is three-fourths of a mile distant. 
The shcoolhouse, erected at a cost of $3,000, is the only building in the 
township of a public character, there being no church, hall, shop, or store of 
any description. This school is in its second year. The cnildren are con- 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION, 



39 



veyed to and from their homes in eight hacks. Three of these are provided 
with stoves and the others have blankets and robes. All are completely 
covered. The average cost per team for transporting pupils is $28 per 
month. Two young men attending school are among the drivers. 

As one of the direct results of consolidation in Lake township may be 
mentioned the fact that this winter four miles of excellent gravel road have 
been made, — the first attempt in that paTt of Clay county at this class of 
improvement. The work was mostly done by farmers gratuitously. They 
expect to continue the work next winter, and it will be but a few years until 
this township will have excellent roads, and the value of every acre of land 
in the township will be enhanced thereby. Last year' the roads were so bad 
that transportation was next to impossible for a considerable time, but the 
people of Lake township have staying qualities, and they are proving the 
practicability of consolidation in the one township of all others in Clay 
county most unfavorable for the undertaking. 

Church and Sunday school are held in the school building on Sundays 
and the hacks used to carry the children during the week are used to some 
extent to carry the people to church on Sunday. 

'4 The eight drivers furnish their own teams and hacks, and are under writ- 
ten contract similar to that outlined in the report on Lloyd township. 

The dififerent routes are indicated on the map appearing in this report. 
The flrst child called for on Route No. 1 must ride 6 miles. 



The driver for Route No. 





' ' 2 


" 


" 


4^ " 




" 3 


" 


' ' 


6 " 




" 4 


" 


" 


6 " 




" 5 


" 


" 


7 




" 6 


" 


" 


i'A " 




" 7 


' ' 


" 


9 " 




" 8 


" 


" 


6 " 


1 re 


ceives 


$40. 00 


pel 


month. 


2 




20.00 


" 


" 


3 




28.00 


" 


" 


4 




30.00 


" 


" 


5 




31.00 


" 


" 


6 




20.00 


" 


" 


7 




30,00 


" 


" 


8 




25.00 


" 





• For purposes of comparison, I give the following table showing enroll- 
ment, attendance, etc., in Lake township for the past five years, the 
first four under the old district plan and the last under the consolidated 
plan: 



Year. 


'Enrolled. 


Average 
Daily At- 
tendance. 


Total 

Paid 

Teachers. 


Paid for 
Fuel, Re- 
pairs and 
Janitor. 


Months' 
School. 


Average Compensation 
Teachers. 




Males. 


Female-. 


1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 


126 
120 
107 
96 
116 


62 
65 
64 
70 
101 


.?1,479.00 

1,639.00 

1,650.00 

1,102.10 

803 25* 


$150. 00 
120. 00 
150 00 
380.00 
150.00 


8 

8- 

8 

5.5 

8 


$27.12 

■28.'66 
50.00 


$27. 45 
29.23 
28. 92 
29.60 
37.50 



*The figures given in this table are from the annual reports of the county superin- 
tendent of Clay county. Evidently this amount should be $1,000 if all the orders for the 
year were paid. 



LAKE TOWNSHIP, CLAY COUNTY. 

TRANSPORTATION ROUTES. 




Map of ;Lake Township, Clay County, showing transportation routes. The numbers 
indicate where each wagon starts and the arrows show the direct ion taken . 
X. Homes from which children are transported. 
[] Central school. 



42 PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

It will be seen from the above table that the average daily attendance was 
60 per cent greater last year than the average in the township for the four 
preceding years. 

This year the principal receives $50 per month and the grade teachers 
$40 each per month. 

The cost per month of maintaining the Lake township school at present 
is: 

Teachers' salaries $130.00 

Transportation (8 teams) 224.00 

Fuel and janitor service (estimated) 20.00 

Total ■ .'5384.00 

The assessed valuation of the township is $178,000. On the present 
basis of cost the levy for teachers' and contingent funds combined for eight 
months of school would be 17.2 mills. 

For the year 1902, when eight months' school was maintained in the 
seven separate districts, the levy was 10 mills (assuming that the assessed 
valuation was the same then as now). But for the year 1902, the average 
daily attendance in the township was but 64, whereas it is now over 100. 
The people are spending more in dollars and cents, but they are getting 
more for the money spent. 

Pupils are transported this winter from forty-one homes. To each of 
these homes I sent a letter requesting answers to the following questions: 

1. Do you regard the school now being conducted in Lake Township as 
being better than the school you had previous to the consolidation? 

2. When the schools of this township were consolidated did you favor 
consolidation or oppose it? 

3. Are you now in favor or opposed to consolidation in this township? 

4. Give reasons for your answer to Question 3. 

5. What advantages, if any, have resulted from consolidating the schools 
of this township? 

6. What disadvantages, if any, have resulted from consolidating the 
schools of this township? 

Thirty-two answers were received. Of these twenty-six patrons say the 
school is better than formerly, most of them say "much better." Fourteen 
of the thirty-two were opposed to the consolidation at first, and ten are 
still opposed. 

THE BENEFITS CLAIMED. 

Those favoring the central school were very positive in their opinions. 
Mr. J. P. Livingston, a director in the township for eight years, answers 
the six questions submitted as follows: 

1. Yes, far ahead of it. 

2. Yes and no, because the roads were not fit. 

3. In favor. 

4. Better school. Better teachers. Better roads. Children like to go 
better and advance more in one year than in two the old way. Children go 
ahead instead of standing still as they oftimes did the old way. Also better 
attendance. 

5. The roads have become better. Property is worth more and a better 
feeling all around. 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 43 

6. It has cost more so far. I don't know of any other disadvantage. 
Hope the good work may go on. 

The following are the principal arguments offered by others in defense of 
the new way as opposed to the old: 

Children attend more regularly. 

The pupils are learning better in every respect. 

Better attendance. 

Bad weather doesn't interfere with attendance. 

Inexperienced teachers are eliminated. 

Better classification. 

Pupils learn more in same length of time, six months in the consolidated 
school being worth more than nine months in the district^school, which 
means less relative expense. 

Pupils have a graded school. 

No pupil ever tardy. 

Larger classes. 

Country children get equal advantages with city children. 

Parents know where their children are during the da. . 

More rivalry for excellence. 

No exposure of children to inclement weather. 

Better teachers. 

Only slight advance in cost, cheaper per pupil considering work done. 

Gives teachers time for individual work. 

Fits children to enter high schools. 

One schoolhouse only to keep up. 

Better teachers and fewer of them to pay. 

More interest in school work. 

Causes improvement of roads. 

Children can be educated without being sent to city. 

Many go that would not go to district schools, among larger children. 



THE OBJECTIONS URGED. 

Those who still oppose the plan of having but one school in the township , 
urge the following objections: 

"It makes all the school in winter and none in summer and it does not 
give the small children any advantage. I am also opposed to boys driving 
the bus. (Two of the young men students drive hacks in this township.) 
It also makes too long a day, starting at 7 o'clock and not coming home 
until 6 p. m. The disadvantages of the consolidation are poor roads, and 
also raising the school tax almost double." 

' 'It is too hard on children from six to ten years of age. Some must 
start before daylight and do not get home until after dark, and ride ten 
miles. It makes most of the school in cold weather. About the only ad- 
vantage is getting a better grade of teachers and it doesn't take as many. 
It costs too much money for transportation." 

"The school is better, but in wet time the scholars can not be transported 
on account of the bad roads, there is no place for the drivers to stay during 
the day, the cost is double the district plan and the house is located in a frog: 



44 ' PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

pond. But the scholars never are tardy, they have the benefit of a graded 
school, and are transported in a warm bus." 

' 'If a good teacher were hired the district school is the best. The graded 
school is an advantage, but the district is better, figuring expense, and the 
long ride of pupils. The disadvantage is the great expense." 

"I think it is a damage to this township. There are no advantages over 
the old way. It costs us more." 

"It is too far away for little children in severe cold weather. Don't like 
some of the men they have for drivers." 

''Too expensive and too far away from patrons on the out-edge of the 
township." 

"The children are obliged to start ab ut 7 o'clock and do not get home 
until 5:50. They can not have time to help at home at all when they are go- 
ing to school." 

' 'It makes taxes one-half higher. I opposed it for the reason that I am 
not located right; My children leave home at 7:15 to 7:30 a. m. and do not 
get back till 5:40 to 6:00 p. m." 

II 

Lloyd Township, Dickinson County. 

The board of directors of the school township of Lloyd submitted the 
following proposition to the electors at the annual meeting March 11, 1901: 

proposition to vote on school house tax. 



Notice to Voters: For an affirmative vote upon the following proposition, 
write the word yes in the square. For a negative vote write the word 
no in the square. 



Shall a school house tax of ten mills on the dollar be voted and 

levied in the school township of Lloyd, in the county of Dickinson, l i 

State of Iowa, the same to be used for a school of higher order, or a I I 

graded school to be located at Terril, Iowa. 

On this proposition 65 men and 8 women voted "Yes," and 37 men 
voted "No." 

A site containing two acres was donated, and a four-room schoolhouse 
erected just outside the corporate limits of the village of Terril. The build- 
ing cost $4,000 and was completed and school opened in October, 1901. The 
old organization prevails whereby a subdirector is chosen annually in each 
of the eight (former) subdistricts, and one director chosen from the town- 
ship at large, making a board of nine members. The people prefer this 
form of organization, because it insures representation on the board from 
every part of the township. 

The board employs seven men with teams to transport the pupils to and 
from school. Each driver enters into a written contract whereby he agrees: 
"To furnish a strong, safe, properly covered vehicle, with comfortable 



LLOYD TOWNSHIP, DICKINSON COUNTY 

TRANSPORTATION ROUTES. 






% 



if 



*• 



r/f^.3 



lA 



/foil 

JC 



-T 



X|^ 



^t. 




W 



yf 



tHH 






^ 



t X- 



X 



^ 






Map of Lloyd Township, Dickinson County, showing transportation routes, 
bers indicate where each wagon starts and the arrows show the direction 
X. Homes from which children are transported. 
[] Central school. 



The num- 
taken. 



46 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 



seats, and a safe, strong, quiet team, with proper harness, all being subject 
to the approval of the board; to furnish warm, comfortable robes or blank- 
ets sufficient for the best protection and comfort for each and all the pupils 
to and from the public school building and their respective homes; to collect 
all the pupils on the route by driving to each and all the homes where pupils 
reside each morning that school is in session in time to convey the pupils to 
school, so as to arrive at the school building not later than 8:50 a.m. and 
return the pupils to their homes, leaving the building at 4:00 p.m.; to per- 
sonally drive and manage his team, and to refrain from the use of any pro- 
fane or vulgar language within the hearing or presence of the cliildren; nor 
will he use tobacco in any form during the time he is conveying the children 
to and from school. He agrees that he will not drive faster than a trot, nor 
race with any team, and that he will keep order and report improper conduct 
on the part of pupils to the Principal or the President of the board." 

During the life of the contract the board retains one-half of the previous 
month's wages of each driver to insure the faithful performance of the con- 
tract. 

The different routes are indicated on the map, appearing in this report. 
The first child called for on Route No. 1 must ride 8 miles. 



" 


No. 2 




5J^ " 


' ' 


No. 3 




6 


" 


No. 4 




8^ " 


" 


No. 5 




7 


" 


No. 6 




6 


' ' 


No. 7 




W2 " 


No. 1 


receives 


.140 per 


month. 


No. 2 


•■ 


33 




No. 3 


" 


35 




No. 4 


" 


40 




No. 5 




42 




No. 6 


" 


34 




No. 7 


" 


30 





This school is now in its fourth year under the consolidated organization. 
For purposes of comparison, I give the following averages for the last three 
years under the old district plan and the first three years under con- 
solidation. 



For the years 1899, 1900 and 1901, the 



.155 

78 



Average enrollment per year 

Average daily attendance per year 

Average paid teachers per year 

Average paid for fuel, janitor service and repairs . . 

Average number of months per year 7 

Average compensation of teachers per month, males 

Average compensation of teachers per month, females 



$1,510.00 
438.85 

30.33 
30.50 



For the years of 1902, 1903 and 1904, the 

Average enrollment per year 192 

Average daily attendance per year 118 

Average paid teachers per year $1,579.00 

Average paid for fuel, janitor service and repairs 277. 00 

Average number of months per year 8 

Average compensation of teachers per month, males 76.66 

Average compensation of teachers per month, females 40. 00 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 47 

The average cost of tuition per pupil per month for the last three years 
under the district plan (based on the amount paid teachers plus amount 
paid for fuel and janitor service) was $3.57. The average cost of tuition 
per pupil per month for the first three years under consolidation (assuming 
that the cost for transportation has been uniformly $254 per month, — the 
amount now paid) . was $4.12. 

While the consolidated school is costing the people more money in the 
aggregate, they are getting far more for their money. The school year has 
been increased one month, the average daily attendance has increased 51 
per cent, the school is well classified, two grades of high school work are 
offered, trained teachers are employed, and the pupils are all interested in 
their work. 

I visited this school, unannounced, on the 11th day of January, 1905. 
The weather was severe and a storm was raging. One hundred and 
twenty-four pupils were in their places, eighty-five of them from the country 
and thirty-nine from the village of Terril. The work of the pupils was as good 
as is usually found in city schools. Most of the teaching was excellent. The 
principal receives this year $80 per month, and the grade teachers $45 each per 
month. Among the songs the children sang during the opening exercises 
was one entitled ' 'Uncle Sam is Rich Enough to Send Us All to School", 
and they sang with "the spirit and understanding." 

The cost per month of maintaining the Lloyd Township school at pres- 
ent is 

Teachers' salaries $ 215 

Transportation (seven teams) . . 254 

Fuel and janitor service (estimated) 25 

Total $494 

The assessed valuation of the property in the township is $280,000. On 
the present basis of cost the levy for teachers' and contingent funds com- 
bined would be 14 mills. 

The answers to questions sent to the patrons of this school who live out- 
side of the town of Terril show that the people of the township are in general 
heartily in favor of the present school organization as opposed to the old. 
Reports were received from the heads of twenty-seven families. Of these 
twenty-three are unqualifiedly in favor of the new way and four are in whole 
or in part opposed, as indicated by the following answers: 

No. 1. ' 'The school is not better than the district school— not for farm- 
ers. 1 am opposed, because the children have to ride from six to seven 
miles in all kinds of weather before they can get to school, and the bus on 
this route is not fit to haul children in. No advantages have resulted from 
consolidation in this township." 

No. 2. "I consider the school much better. In part, I am in favor of 
the present plan. But being situated at the farthest distance from school, 
we find it difiicult to keep the small children comfortably warm in severe 
cold weather, while the older ones suffer some. The greatest fault I find is 
in the long hours the children are from home on the road and at school." 

No. 3. "The school is better, children learn more and come nearly 
every day. But I am against consolidation in this township. We can levy 
but $2,200 for contingent fund and eight months willjcostthat fund $3,200 at 



48 PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

least, so we are $1,000 short. Seven wagons are now required. If all parts 
were settled it would take twelve. " 

No. 4. "The school is quite a bit better. Children have learned more, 
because they can afford to keep better teachers. I opposed consolidation 
when it was effected. In some ways I am now in favor and others not. 
The books have to be changed so often and the children must be on the 
road so long. They are apt to catch all kinds of sickness." 

Of the other twenty-four reporting, all, without any reservations, favor 
the present plan. In answer to the question: "What disadvantages have 
resulted from consolidation in Lloyd Township':"' eighteen say "not any," 
one adding: "And I recommend it to every township in the state of Iowa." 

One says the only disadvantage is that "people on the outcorners of the 
township have to send their children out so early in the morning to get them 
to school." Another says it is a disadvantage ''when the roads are bad 
and the taxes may be a little higher." 

The reasons given in these replies for favoring the new plan are, in brief, 
as follows: 

Can afford better teachers. 

Pupils make better headway. 

Our children can graduate at home instead of our having to send them 
away to high school. 

School taught by instructors who know how to teach. 

By transporting children, the little ones can attend now where they could 
not under the old plan. 

Children attend more regularly. 

Children graded in classes and take more interest in their studies. 

More children attend. 

Gives pupils all over the township the same advantages and has given all 
the advantage of better schools. 

Pupils not exposed to the cold and storms. 

Teachers are first class and are hired for the full year. 

"Was opposed to consolidation. Now in favor of it. My children can 
ride five miles better than they could walk one." 

People take more interest in the roads and look after the bad places. 

III. 

Buffalo Township, Winnebago County. 

In the year 1895 the people of this township voted to form an independ- 
ent district embracing the entire civil township, six miles square, and voted 
bonds running for a period of ten years for the purpose of erecting an eight- 
room building. 

The board, which consists of five members, is chosen on the second Mon- 
day in March by the qualified electors, and is governed by the same provis- 
ions of law which apply to independent districts. 

At first the country schools were maintained as formerly, but in August, 
1897, the board arranged for the transportation of children in three districts. 
A year later the [board, upon petition, arranged for the transportation of 
children from another ward and, in 1899, ordered all the rural schools in the 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 49 

district closed, except those in the extreme northeastern and southeastern 
parts of the township. This arrangement continued till January, 1904, when 
one of th« country schools formerly closed was reopened, with a member- 
ship of twenty-five pupils. 

At the present time the district maintains eight rooms in the town of 
Buffalo Center and three in the remote parts of the district. 

The central school is located only one mile from the western boundary 
line of the district, thus making it impracticable to transport pupils from the 
remote portions of the township. 

The enrollment in the Buffalo Center School this year is 269. Of these 
71 are from the country and are transported in 5 hacks. Drivers in this 
township receive on the average $38 per month . 

The taxable valueation of property in the township is $349,901. Of this 
amount the sum of $125,239 is credited to the incorporated town of Buffalo 
Center and $224,662 to the remainder of the township. The present levy for 
teachers' and contingent funds combined is 22.1 mills. 

It will be seen that this organization differs from that of the two just 
considered, since three one-room country schools are maintained in the re- 
mote parts of the township and the management of these schools is under 
the control of a board, a majority of whose members live in the town or 
immediate vicinity of Buffalo Center. 

From replies received from this township, many of the people are appar- 
ently indifferent as to a choice between the < Id district plan and the present 
plan. One patron, with a suggestion of sarcasm, says: "It has given us 
the great privilege of furnishing 45 per cent of the pupils and of paying 65 
per cent of the cost of the school, and having two of the five directors out in 
the country. " 

Another patron says no advantage has resulted from consolidation and 
adds: "The small children can't go to school in hard weather. " However- 
a majority of the replies received from this township are favorable to the 
present plan, all but three saying they regard the Buffalo Center school far 
better than the one-room district school, and one adding: "For the town it 
is better, but not for the country. " This patron who is strongly opposed to 
the present plan says: "I think 80 per cent of the children in the country 
quit school as soon as the law will allow them, as they cannot attend school 
more than four or five months a year and ttey get so far behind the town 
children they are ashamed to attend town school." He also suggests that 
the hack service is not satisfactory. 

Patrons who favor the present plan advance practically the same argu- 
ments that were offered in defense of the Lake township and Lloyd township 
schools. 

Most of the arguments advanced by the opponents to consolidation in 
Buffalo township are not so much arguments against this form of school 
organization.asagainst the way in which it is applied locally, //the country 
children are permitted by their parents to attend school but four or five 
month in the year, the parents are derelict of their duty toward their chil- 
dren and must bear much of the blame. // the grading in the Buffalo 
Center school is so devoid of flexibility that the less favored pupils can not be 
reasonably classified, the management of the school should modify the 
grading in a way to meet the needs of these pupils, as well as the more 
4 



50 PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

favored, //children suffer from cold, or are unprotected in the storms, the 
fault is with the board in not pvoviding the best facilities for transporting 
pupils. Wagons designed and built specially for this service and owned by 
the district would entirely remove this objection. But with the consolidated 
school two miles from the center of the district, it is impossible that all the 
difficulties can be removed that are met with in this particular district, 
which maintains, nevertheless, a good school with high school advantages 
free to every child in the township. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

From personal inspection and study of some of the consoliflated schools 
in this state, supplemented by the study of reports from other states where 
the system has been longer in operation and is much more general, I reach 
the following conclusions: 

1. Pupils in consolidated schools very generally enjoy better school 
privileges and are taught by better teachers than under the old district plan. 

2. Where transportation is provided for all pupils the cost of mainte- 
nance is usually but not always more than under the district plan, but the 
enrollment is so much larger and the attendance so much more regular that 
the increased benefits equal or outrun the increased cost of maintenance. 

3. Where consolidation is successfully established, the opposition at first 
engendered gradually disappears and bitter opponents often come to be 
ardent supporters of the new plan when they see the superior benefits it 
secures to the children. 

4. Where transportation is made the fixed policy in any district, wagons 
specially desisfned for transportation purposes should be owned by the dis- 
trict. This will result in the greater comfort of the children an i make it 
easier for the board to secure competent drivers, — a matter of the greatest 
importance. 

5. Children should seldom, if ever, be required to ride a greater dis- 
tance than five miles. The very long rides are both expensive to the district 
and hard on the children. It follows from this conclusion that the civil 
township is, in general, too large a unit for a school district maintaining but 
one school. The law should authorize the change of boundaries between 
contiguous school townships or between school townships and independent 
districts in such a way that consolidated districts of smaller area than the 
civil township could be established. The size and outline of the consoli- 
dated district should be determined by the physical features of its area and 
by the location of the homes to be accommodated. The homes on opposite 
sides of a public highway should be in the same district; hence half section 
lines or quarter section lines, rather than section lines, should in the main 
separate school districts. 

While an area somewhat smaller than the civil township is preferable as a 
permanent school unit, township consolidation is practicable where the roads 
are good and the schools are small. 

6. The consolidated school should in the main be kept in the country or 
in the small country village. The school should be the social center of the 
community. Where one or more country districts are consolidated with a 
city district, the course of study should be made sufficiently flexible to pro- 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 51 

vide for the classification, without loss, of those pupils who can attend school 
only during the winter months. 

7. The need of consolidation should appeal most strongly to the people 
of the many districts where the children are so few that an efficient school 
can not be maintained. There is an urgent need of consolidating such dis- 
tricts. The need is less urgent in districts where a good attendance can be 
maintained, for a district school with a good enrollment and an efficient 
teacher may be an excellent school. 



ALBION CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 

The principal of this school, Mr. James H. Dutton, gives the following 
statement under date of January 11, 1905: 

Fifty-one children are being transported this year to the Albion school. 
Three teams are used to transport them, The drivers furnish their own 
teams and conveyances, and are paid $30 per month for their services. The 
hacks are comfortable, being warmed in severe weather by means of oil 
stoves. Selection of drivers is made by the school board who first consult 
the patrons as to their choice of applicants. Obtaining good drivers is a 
matter of no difficulty here. 

Six teachers are required in the consolidated school. If we did not have 
consolidation, three would be required in Albion, and three in the country 
districts. 

The patrons after a fair trial are generally well satisfed and know they 
have much better school privileges than under the old organization. We 
have fourteen more in the high school this year than last. A number have 
entered school who would not be here but for the superior advantages 
afforded. Ten pupils from outside the consolidated district are paying 
tuition in the high school. 



MARATHON CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. 

This district is composed of what was formerly the indepeodent district 
of Marathon and five subdistricts of the school township of Poland. The 
district contains 24^ sections. Three subdistricts remain under the old 
township organization which has no organic connection with the Marathon 
consolidated district. 

In 1903 a school building was erected in this district at a cost of $20,000, 
and the school under the new organization opened November 9, 1903. At the 
present time there are 268 pupils enrolled, 111 of them from the country and 
157 from the town of Marathon. Five teams are required to transport 
pupils. Drivers furnish their own conveyances and receive an average com- 
pensation of J34.25 per month. 

Before consolidation six teachers were required in Marathon and five in 
the country schools since abandoned. Eight teachers are now required in 
the consolidated school. It has thus been [possible to eliminate three 
teachers. The saving of the salary of three teachers and the saving in fuel 




flffffff II'. 



CENTRAL SCHOOL, MARATHON, BUENA VISTA COUNTY. 



54 PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

and repairs incident to closing five buildings will very nearly pay for the 
transportation of the pupils, who now (have access to an excellent school 
offering high school privileges. 



CONSOLIDATION IN INDIANA. 



From a report recently issued by State Superintendent Fassett A. Cotton, 
of Indiana, it is shown that 783 district schools have been abandoned in that 
state, and 5,396 children transported to central schools. For this service 378 
teams are required at an average cost of $1.60 per day or $32 per school 
month. 

From a detailed report on consolidation in Lagrange county , Indiana, 
for the school year 1903-1904, it is shown that consolidation has been eflfected 
in eight of the eleven townships. The county superintendent, H. S. Gil- 
hams, furnishes the following statement: 

1. The drivers carry watches and consult them while on the route. 

2. Each driver keeps the time of the consolidated school, generally 
standard. 

3. The rate of speed while on the route averages five miles per hour for 
the year. 

4. The time of arrival varies from ten to fifteen minutes prior to the 
opening of the school. 

5. Tne more remote pupils ride about five miles and 60 per cent ride 
three miles or less. 

6. Children are kept comfortable by stoves, patent heaters, blankets and 
soap stones. 

7. The greatest advantage to the service is township ownership of hacks 
and the improvement of roads. 

8. The drivers exercise due responsibility in promptly and safely convey- 
ing the children to school and returning them to their homes. They also, by 
contract, prohibit questionable language, undue familiarity and boisterous 
conduct in or about the hacks. 

9. Eighty-five (85) per cent of the patrons have reported the consolidated 
scho j1 as their preference in comparison with the "old way." 

Tne following statement of gains and losses due to consolidation in this 
county is also given: 

Number of schools receiving conveyed pupils 14 

Number of schools abandoned 38 

Additional teachers required in the central schools 7 

Saving in number of teachers 31 

Saving in salaries of teachers $10, 651. 60 

Saving in fuel and repairs 2,260.00 

•Total saving $12, 911. 60 

Number of pupils conveyed 428 

Number of hacks required 29 

Total cost for transportation for the year 6, 176. 86 

Net saving, not counting additional cost of fuel and 

janitor service in consolidated schools $ 6, 734. 74 




Wagon specially designed for transporting pupils to and from school. Where pupils are 
regularly transported, the district should own its own wagons. 



56 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 



TUITION PUPILS IN THE GRADED SCHOOLS. 

There are 770 graded schools in Iowa. Of this number 544 had, last 
year, tuition pupils from country districts either in the grades or high 
schools, or both. The aggregate number of tuition pupils with the amount 
received by graded schools for tuition for the year ending September 1,1904, 
is as follows: 





Boys. 


Girls. 


Total. 




2,022 
2,701 

4,723 


1,910 
3,255 

5,165 


3,932 




5,956 




9,88> 










$ 34, 579. 14 




79, 958. 02 




$114, 537. 16 










Mills 



Tax levy for school purposes in cities and towns (on basis of 388 reports) — 

Teachers' f and 

Contingent fund 

Tax levy for school pur noses in country districts (on basis of averages reported 
from 70 counties)— 

Teachers' fund 

Contingent fund 



15.1 



7.9 
2.6 



TEACHERS EMPLOYED 
in the 134 towns and cities of Iowa, having a population of 1,500 or over. 



Total number employed 3,974 

Number who are graduates of the Iowa State Normal School 367 

Number who are graduates of other state normal schools 136 

Number who are graduates of some college or university 719 

Number who are graduates of academies, private normal schools or high sohools 

maintaining a four-year course 2,269 

Total who are graduates 3, 491 

Number with no experience , 82 

Number who hold state certificates or life diplomas 552 



PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 57 

EDUCATION OF THE FARM BOY AND GIRL. 

* * * Have the advantages for the education of the farm boy and girl 
kept pace with the advancement in all other lines of society? Is the little 
schoolhouse, with its poor equipment, with the poorly trained teacher in 
many instances, and with very poor work in the common branches sufficient 
to meet the demands of today for the common school education? 

Have we not reached the period in all the central western states where 
nothing short of a well equipped schoolhouse, a iirst-class teacher and a 
course of study revised to meet the demands of the times, are a necessity for 
our children? 

I believe that every farmer who reads this article will agree with me that 
conditions have changed since he was a boy, and that it takes a better 
trained mind to be a successful farmer or business man today than it did 
even ten years ago. 

It is safe to say that the time has come when the farmer must have within 
comparatively easy reach of his home a well constructed schoolhouse, thor- 
oughly equipped for giving the best of modern education. He ought not to 
have to send his son or daughter away from home to school until at least 
two years of the work of the modern high school has been completed. The 
farm boy and the farm girl should be at home at nights while they are get- 
ting their general education. These conveniences may be had everywhere 
by the consolidation of schools in localities of mutual interests. This has 
already been done to a large extent in Indiana, and the plan is under good 
headway in Iowa and some other western states. 

There is no reason why the farmers should not provide these conveniences 
of education for their children. It is nothing more than they are doing; to 
provide themselves with better means of breeding and handling their stock 
or improving their farms, and certainly their children's welfare is of much 
more concern than any farm or stock improvements. * * * 

The new conditions of life on the farm demand improvement in general 
education for the farm boy or girl. It is presumed that the course of study 
will contain a good course in bookkeeping, and facilities should be provided 
for a certain amount of industrial work. The children in the grades should 
be taught to make various articles, such as cardboard modeling, clay model- 
ing, weaving of rugs and hammocks, baskets with raffia, reed and willow, 
doll houses with raffia furniture and various articles that may be easily 
made under the direction of a trained teacher, and both the children of the 
grades and the high s;hool should have access to a shop where they may 
learn to make articles by the use of simple tools. This work is not to be 
carried on with the idea of making carpenters or artisans of all, but with the 
thought in view of cultivating a desire and an appreciation for such work 
ani the further idea of giving the pupils the opportunity to acquire the 
ability to help themselves an thereby to help others. A few hours a week 
at such work as this will prove invaluable to any child. Parents have not 
come to the realization yet how much this industrial work means to their 
children. The expense of providing this equipment is nominal, compared 
to the good to be received, and the pupils need very little instruction in 
order to acquire the training it is intended they shall secure from such work. 
* * * The proper education of the farm boy and girl can not be neglected 



58 PRESENT STATUS OF CONSOLIDATION. 

without bringing ruin upon the farming communities. If these advantages 
are not provided the farm boys and girls will drift away early into other call- 
ings. If the right kind of schools are provided for the country boys and 
girls they will remain at home until they receive this general education, and 
then if they have gifts in other directions it will be time for the u to seek 
special schools. — Fres. O. H. Longwell in Twentieth Century Farmer. 

A NEW ARGUMENT. 

The arguments commonly advanced for the township consolidation of 
rural schools are, first, the increase in the efficiency of the teaching, second, 
the economy in financial expenditures for the support of the schools. 
A third argument which we have not heard advanced is the increase, with- 
out extra expense, of the size of the school grounds, which, considered in 
the light of fifty or a hundred years hence, is as potent an argument for 
rural consolidation as either of the first two. 

The instituting and observing of Arbor day the past few \ ears has sug- 
gested the idea of preserving the native woods of, for instance Iowa, by 
planting on school grounds all trees and shrubs that are indigenous to Iowa 
soil. This, to be efifective would require larger plats of ground than at 
present is set off for school purposes. No rural school plat should contain 
less than ten acres of ground, which should be set out, in large part, in the 
form of small groves each containing trees of a kind; there being as many 
small groves as there are trees indigenous to the soil. What an ideal for a 
school environment, where the pupils have an opportunity to commune with 
nature direct, and under conditions best fitted to stir the proper emotions of 
the soul and inspire to higher thoughts and aspirations! And yet how fea- 
sible and easy of attainment, while land is comparatively inexpensive, espec- 
ially by consolidating the eight or nine districts of a township into one, and 
appropriating the amount of ground to the one district, that is already 
appropriated to the nine. Now is the time to inaugurate such a movement. 
One hundred dollars an acre for such a purpose would be economically 
spent. The time is coming in the future when America shall have reached 
the density of population, already attained in some of our European states, 
when land will have risen to such a value as to prohibit such a proposition 
as presented above. 

County Suprintendent Cole, of Cerro Gordo county, asks in the Novem- 
ber number of the Midland schools, the question, "Would the migration to 
the city be so great if our rural pupils were offered that which would develop 
and make them intellegent and scientific farmers, thereby making rural life 
more attractive?"— A very pertinent question.— 6^«/o« County Public Schools . 



One Phase of the Teacher Problem 



The Greatest Need of Any School is 
a Trained and Competent Teacher. 



ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 61 



THE LICENSING OF TEACHERS 

Address 

Delivered before N . E. Iowa Teachers' Association Dubuque^ Oct. 22, 1904. 

by 

John F. Riggs- 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



I have a purpose in discussing at this time the hackneyed subject of 
teachers' examinations. In a little more than a year from now the Thirty- 
first General Assembly of Iowa will meet. At that time some important 
school legislation will be urged , and doubtless one of the most important 
measures will relate to the examination of teachers. But all efforts looking 
to the change of our laws on this important subject will be utterly futile 
unless the strong teachers in the ranks, and the county and city superin- 
tendents of the state give earnest support to the measures which may be 
brought forward. 

I am, therefore, discussing this year in the four district meetings of the 
state the question of licensing teachers in the hope that the leading teachers 
who attend these meetings may be set to thinking on this subject long 
enough in advance to have well-grounded convictions when our legislators 
shall again meet in general assembly; and if you shall come to agree with 
me that radical changes in our system are needed, I ask earnestly that you 
make known your views on this subject to the men who may represent you 
in the next general assembly, and that you use your influence in creating a 
public sentiment in favor of the changes proposed. 

I am of the opinion that we now have much needless examination of 
teachers. I am also of the opinion that, by some hook or crook, a great 
many persons secure certificates who never, in their lives, passed a satisfac- 
tory examination. 

The theory of our law requiring teachers to hold a county or state certifi- 
cate showing qualification is, that without the barrier of an examination, 
incompetent persons would occupy the teacher's office. In so far then as 
incompetent persons secure certificates despite this barrier, the purpose of 
the law is defeated; and, in so far as competent teachers are re-examined 
simply because the law permits or requires it, no benefit results, but a need- 
less burden is imposed upon the teachers. 

If none but the scholarly and well prepared were to seek positions as 
teachers we might abandon examinations altogether and have free teaching, 
i. e. , teaching without certificates. But with the conditions as we have 
them — with rnultitudes of the illy prepared clamoring to enter the teachers' 
ranks— examinations become a necessity. But, they are a necessity only for 
those whose scholarship and general fitness for the teachers' office are not 



62 ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 

fully determined. That is to say, after a teacher by an honest entrance ex- 
amination demonstrates that she possesses adequate scholarship, and then 
by practical experience in teaching demonstrates her ability to govern and 
instruct youth and is withal a student and actively intereted in the educa- 
tional movements of her city or county, there is little reason for calling her 
before the county superintendent once a year to find out whether she has 
forgotten anything or has learned anything new. 

I have a very high opinion of the integrity and ability of the county 
superintendents of Iowa. There is, doubtless, not one of them who does 
not earnestly desire to deal justly with every applicant and to issue certifi- 
cates to those candidates only who are fully prepared for the work of teach- 
ing. But the superintendent who attempts to adhere strictly to a high and 
uniform standard is so beset by friends of illy prepared candidates that 
official life becomes a burden and under the pressure it would not be 
surprising if the less resolute should stifle convictions and yield at this 
point and that, and thus subject the schools to the rule of immaturity and 
inefficiency. 

Former State Superintendent Harvey of Wisconsin in one of his excellent 
reports says that 90 per cent of the countv superintendents of that state, in 
the year 1900, bore testimony to the fact that they were unable to limit the 
issue of certificates to people whom they believed to be thoroughly qualified 
for the work of teaching; that they were beset by political influence demand- 
ing that certificates be issued to friends and relatives of the political sup- 
porters of this officer without reference to qualifications. 

Wisconsin is not Iowa, but if this condition existed in 90 per cent of the 
counties in Wisconsin in 1900, may it not exist to some extent in some of the 
counties of Iowa in 1904. I contend that it is both impolitic and unjust to 
subject the county superintendent to this tremendous pressure. 

It is evident to anv one familiar with the facts that the standard in some 
counties is very much higher than in others. We may now have ninety-nine 
standards in this state, and the standard in any county may be changed 
whenever a new superintendent is installed in office. And the law recog- 
nizes this in that it does not permit any recognition in one county of a cer- 
tificate issued in another county. It is not even permissible under our law, 
as it is interpreted by the attorney-general, to have an examination written 
in one county and have the manuscripts forwarded to another county for 
grading. The county line in Iowa, so far as certificates are concerned, is 
an absolute barrier. 

But our present system not only gives us varying standards and subjects 
our county superintendents to the persistent importunity of unqualifled 
persons who seek certificates, but it requires that the superintendent devote 
time to this work that he could more profitably spend out among the schools, 
nspiring teachers and pupils and creating a healthy school sentiment among 
the people. I am aware that many people believe the county superintendent 
has two essential duties: one to examine teachers and the other to draw his 
salary. But some of the live county superintendents of the state are demon- 
strating their greater value in awakening teachers and pupils and patrons 
to their best endeavor for the improvement and strengthening of the 
schools. 



ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 63 

In such counties it is a distinct loss to the school to withdraw the super- 
intendent from thi- essential work and set him to poring over examination 
papers. In more than 80 per cent of the counties of Iowa examinations are 
held every month, as prescribed bylaw, and sometimes two or more exami- 
nations are held in the same month. The week following most of these ex- 
aminations, is largely devoted by the superintendent to reading manuscripts 
and in making out and mailing returns. Last winter I asked our county 
superintendents to state the number of days spent each year in this work, 
and from the answers received, I find that the average is fully fifty days a 
year for each county. Indeed, the time spent would be much more were it not 
for the fact that in more than four-fifths of the counties of Iowa the institute 
instructors assist in reading and marking manuscripts written at the 
beginning or close of the summer institute. But this class of help is expen- 
sive, costing the counties from five to ten dollars per day for each person so 
employed. So it comes about that the examination of teachers in this state 
is attended with very considerable expense. 

Now, instead of this county system with its many inherent weaknesses, 
it is proposed to adopt the state system of qualifying teachers. 

The essential diflferences would be, first, in the number of examinations; 
second, in the persons who would mark the examination manuscripts; and 
third, in the value of the certificate issued and its effect on standards and 
salaries. 

Instead of having examinations every month of the year, there would be 
four examinations. Two of these would be held in the summer — one in June 
and one in July. A third examination would be held in October for the 
accommodation of those deprived of attendance upon a summer examina- 
tion, or who were to teach the winter term only. Then, for emergency 
cases, a fourth examination would be assigned for February'. So, with ex- 
aminations the last of February, June, July and October, the entire body of 
teachers in any county could be accommodated quite as well as with twelve 
examinations, as now provided by law. The examinations would be con- 
ducted in the several counties under the direct supervision of the county 
superintendent as at present. At the conclusion of the examination the 
county superintendent would forward all the manuscripts, with possibly one 
exception, to the bffice of the state superintendent, and the scholarship of 
each applicant as shown by the examination manuscripts would then be 
determined by readers appointed by the state board of educational 
examiners. The certificate issued would be effective in anv county of the 
state, when registered with the county superintendent and receiving his offi- 
cial signature. Under this system a standard uniform for this state would 
be secured; county lines, so far as certificates are concerned, would dis- 
appear, and the value of the certificate would be greatly increased in that it 
would be practically a state certificate. And, further, an incentive would 
be held out to teachers in that the higher class of certificates would be sub- 
ject to renewal solely on the condition of continued successful teaching. 
The effect of such a law would be seen in a raising of the standards and in 
an increase of the salaries of teachers. 

We have heard much of low salaries of teachers in Iowa, and the demand 
for better salaries has been repeatedly made through the press and from the 
public platform. Most of our teachers are underpaid. We will all agree to 



64 ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 

that proposition; but I say to you that there are teachers who would be over- 
paid at any salary. 

The strong teacher is in a sense in competition with the weak. It is, 
therefore, to the interest of the good teachers and to the interests of the 
people and of the people's children that the poor and incompetent teachers be 
eliminated. 

I want to see the time in Iowa, and I hope I may see it very soon, when 
the strong, successful teacher can demand reasonable wages for her services, 
and when she can say to the school board: ' 'If you do not wish my services 
at a fair salary, I will teach somewhere else." She can do this when her 
certificate is good in any county and when there are more schools hunting 
teachers than teachers hunting schools. 

Fortunately we are not left in doubt as to the practical workings of a 
system such as I have suggested. For ten years New York has had the state 
system of licensing teachers. Minnesota has had such a system five years, 
and South Dakota two years. The reports I have received from each of 
these states commend the system as satisfactory and as a great improvement 
over the old method of county certification. 

Since the conditions prevailing in Minnesota and Iowa are not greatly 
different, a law that works well there ought, if adopted, to work well here. 
I want, therefore, to read to you the testimony I have received from a few 
of the leading county superintendents of Minnesota. I will read brief ex- 
tracts onh to show the general trend of the answers received to my questions 
as to whether the law was satisfactory and whether it had tended to raise 
the standard of teaching. Every superintendent to whom I wrote made 
reply, and 95 per cent of them commend the law as just and eminently 
satisfactory. 

Supt. Geo, F. Howard, of Rochester, says: 

It secures tiniformity of certificates throughout the state, and teachers are not caused 
trouble and expense to secure another certificate when they cross county lines to teach as 
many do. It takes the marking of the papers out of the hands of the county superintend- 
ent and relieves him of a large amount of drudgery. It eliminates the matter of favoritism 
in the granting of certificates, which is one of the greatest evils of the county system of 
certification. It raises the standard of both teachers and schools and, combined with 
special state aid to rural schools, is doing more to elevate our schools to higher and better 
things than any other agency that has ever been at work in our state. 

Supt. G. E. Parkhill, Fergus Falls, says: 

Otter Tail county, the largest in the state in number of school districts, employs about 
three hundred teachers. Eighteen of this number hold county certificates granted upon 
private examination. This was made necessary last fall on account of a shortage of 
teachers. Otherwise every teacher in the oounty holds a regular state certificate granted 
by the state superintendent of public instruction. We have always had training schools 
and still have a six-weeks' summer school and four county teachers's meetings yearly, yet 
nothing has so effectually raised the standard of our whole teaching force as has our strict 
observance of the spirit and letter of our present certificate law. The privileges granted 
under our present law for the issuing of local certificates should be trimmed again. We 
are now ready for more rigid uniformity and equality in the licensing of teachers. 

You will see by the above paragraph that we are willing to go on record for a still 
higher standard of qualifications and that this standard can be best obtained by a more 
rigid law for the examining and Licensing of teachers. 



ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 65 

Supt. Martin L. Pratt, of Granite Falls, says: 

The strongest point in favor of the law is that the teacher must depend upon his own 
exertions, and not on his political influence, in order to get a certificate. There can be 
no valid objection to the law. It is fair and impartial. 

Supt. Fanny G. Gies, of Austin, says: 

I believe the work of the rural schools in any state would be improved by the state 
licensing of teachers. There will be opposition at first from some of the- best county su- 
perintendents who had high standards and ideals and felt that their authority may be cur- 
tailed, and of course opposition from that class of superintendents who occasionally use 
the granting of certificates for political purposes. But this opposition will soon die out, 
as it has here, when the majority realize that the standard for teachers of the state as a 
whole is gradually being raised through this system. 

Supt. F. L. Williams of Watertown says: 

I am well pleased with it. It has now been in force for more than four years and in 
that time it has accomplished much good. 

First, it has practially done away with political grafting. 

Second, it has increased the standard of education among our teachers, permiting 
them to prepare on a special line of work instead of a constant repetition of all the 
common branches. 

Third, ic has had a tendency to raise the wages of the teacher. I believe the wages in 
my county have increased from 12 to 15 per cent since its passage. I see no serious draw - 
backs to the law at present. 

Supt. Geo. D. Goodrich, of Anoka, says: 

The advantages of the Minnesota law may be summarized under five heads: 

First — Absolutely impartial, or as nearly so as human arrangement can be. 

Second — Uniformity throughout the state. 

Third — Certificates are good anywhere, and teachers can take the examination wher- 
ever it is convenient . 

Fourth— The county superintendent is relieved from the criticism or enmity of those 
who fail; also from the work of looking over Ihe papers, and has more time for other 
important school niatters. 

Fifth— The work of examination is put largely in the hands of experts who have usu- 
ally been broad minded people of sense and judgment, as well as culture. 

Supt. S. J. Race, of Redwood Falls, says: 

We have never had such excellence, such fairness, such uniformity and such com- 
pleteness, as now exhibited in the Minnesota state certificate law. The law, while only in 
operation six years, has raised the standard of teaching and teachers' scholarship fifty per 
cent.*^ There can now be no partiality, nor political unfairness in teachers' certificates. 

Supt. Julius Boraas, of Red Wing, says: 

The system of state examinations for teachers has- established uniformity throughout 
the state, done away with ' 'pull' ' and local influence in securing certificates, and elevated 
the standard of teaching as a whole. It provides for a reasonable system of renewals 
placing teachers on a more permanent basis than before. Though there are defects in the 
system they are far less numerous than those of the old county system. 

Supt. Mary A. Hanson, of Detroit, says: 

After four years of state examination and licensing of teachers, the result manifest in 
our county is a constantly rising standard of scholarship in the teaching force, and a 
larger percentage of our teachers attending normal and other higher institutions of 
learning, in order to meet the requirements. 

Supt. G. M. Cesander, of Winthrop, says: 

The Minnesota law relative to the examining and licensing of teachers has given a 
universal satisfaction throughout the entire state. 

It has establis-hed under the careful svipervision of the department of publicinstruction 
a uniformity of[grading and marking examii ation papers. I know of noother plan which 
would be more compltte and more accurate as an imj artial test of the applicant's 
6cholastic[qualification. 
5 



66 ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 

Supt. G. C. Borchardt, of Madison, says: 

It has in this county raised the standing of the teachers over 33 per cent, I am sure. 
We have better and stronger teachers as a result of the lavt^. The average salary of teach- 
ers in this county for this year will be $44 per month. I can truthfully say that it is my 
experience that a teacher who can not pass our examination is not prepared to teach in 
the schools of the state, or any other state, for that matter. 

Supt. W. E. Freeman, of Mankato, says: 

It has been my observation that the state system of marking teachers' examination 
papers has raised the educational standard of the teaching force of the state and has 
dignified the calling. Some tax payers object to the state system because teachers are 
demanding and receiving higher salaries. Such objections are not founded on good grounds 
for the superior scholarship and better work of the present teaching force of this state 
demand a higher salary than was paid five years ago. 

Such is the testimony of men, many of whom have had experience as 
officers under both systems and all of whom, because of their official posi- 
tions, and their professional standing, are well qualified to speak with 
authority on this subject. 

The teacher who is prepared for her work should welcome the change 
proposed. The examination questions would be no more difficult than those 
that have been furnished by the state department of education for the past 
twenty years. The only difference would be a more critical reading of the 
answer papers, and a possibly closer marking. I am perfectly well aware 
that a great wail would go out from those unable to pass the state examina- 
tion; but for such there would be one remedy only, and that, to become 
proficient in the branches of study covered by the examination. To those 
sufficiently well informed in a subject to teach it successfully, an examina- 
tion would have no terrors. 

Should the marking of examination manuscripts come under state author- 
ity, the greatest care would be exercised to secure a perfectly fair return for 
each applicant. Aside from the readers, who would be carefully selected, a 
review board would be retained to re-read the papers of those candidates 
who fail by a small margin or who fail in one or two subjects. Teachers 
would also be given the privilege of combining the results of two consecutive 
state examinations. That is to say, if one examination were successful in a 
part of the subjects, it would not be required of the candidate to write on 
the same subjects at the next succeeding examination. This is the method 
followed both in New York and Minnesota . It would seem that with this assur- 
ance any qualified teacher would feel safe under the state system, and since it 
opens the way to professional recognition in a manner not possible with our 
present county system of certificating teachers, our best teachers should, in 
my judgment, welcome this change, and should use their influence to bring 
it about. 

The legislation I have outlined in this address will, I believe, commend 
itself to the good judgment of the men who will constitute the membership 
of the Thirty-first General Assembly to meet early in 1906. But no important 
school legislation can be expected except as the strong teachers and super- 
intendents of the state stand united in its earnest advocacy. 

I have, therefore, presented to you, at this early date, proposed changes 
in our laws governing examinations in the hope that a candid consideration 
of the same may enlist your hearty support. 



ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 67 

FREQUENT EXAMINATIONS NOT NECESSARY. 

The Iowa law requires that the county superintendent devote the last 
Saturday of each month and the Friday preceding to the examination of 
teachers. 

Taking the average for the state the examinations held in the different 
months are attended as follows: 

January 3+ per cent of all the applicants for the year. 

February 5+ " " " " " 

March 10— " " " " " 

April 4+ " " " " " 

May 1+ 

June 7 — " " " " " 

July 13- 

August 33— " " " " " 

September 9— " " " " " 

October 5— " " " " " 

November 5— " " " " " 

December 5+ " " " " " 

Four examinations would serve all interests quite as well. If the teachers 
of the state were made to know that the examination could be taken only 
the last of February, June, July or October, they could attend one of these 
examinations. Minnesota and South Dakota get along very well with two 
examin itions for the yea-, while the great state of New York has but four 
examinations. 



A CHANGE NEEDED IN OUR LAWS GOVERNING THE EXAMI- 
NATION AND CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS. 



1. The number of examinations should not exceed four in any one year. 

2. The county superintendent should be required to conduct examinations 
under rules prescribed by the superintendent of public instruction, using 
state lists only. 

3. The county superintendent should not be permitted to admit to the 
examination any person morally or physically unfit to have charge of 
children and youth. 

4. The county Euperinfendent should be required by law to forward all 
answer papers, except the papers in theory and practice of teaching, to the 
superintendent of public instruction immediately upon the completion of 
the examination, said papers to be read and graded by readers appointed 
by the superintendent of public instruction or by the state board of educa- 
tional examiners. 

5. The county superintendent should be required to grade all papers in 
theory and practice of teaching, taking into consideration the knowledge 
he may have of each applicant's success as a teacher or fitness for teaching 
other than scholarship. He should also examine each applicant in oral 
reading, his markings in theory and practice of teaching and in oral reading 
to be forwarded to the superintendent of public instruction not later 
than one week after the close of the examination. 



68 ONE PHASE OF THE TEACHER PROBLEM. 

6. An applicant passing a successful examination should receive a certfi- 
cate signed by the superintendent of public instruction, the same to be valid 
in any county in Iowa when countersigned by the county superintendent of 
that county. 

7. The life of a certificate should be longer than now permitted by law, 
and reasonable provision should be made for the renewal of first-class 
certificates. 

8. In any change made in the method of examining and certifying teachers, 
adequate support of the county institute fund should be maintained. d 

' 'The uniform certification law has exceeded the most sanguine expectations of this 
department in its effects upon the standard of the teaching force of the state. In fact 
it has produced a veritable revolution in its brief history. * * * 

The new law dignifies the profession of teaching, places every candidate entirely 
upon his merits, destroys all possibility of favoritism and gives to the worthy teacher a 
credential in which he may take pride, and which is good, or may be made good, in any 
county of the state. " 

Hon. G. W. Nash, 
State Superintendent of South Dakota. 

' 'It is everywhere conceded that the present plan has decided advantages over the old 
one, where every county superintendent had a standard of his own, or no standard. " 

Hon. J. W. Olsen 
State Superintendent of Minnesota. 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 71 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



' 'Children as well as older people are affected by their environments, and nowhere is 
this more clearly shown than in the schoolroom. The silent beauty radiating from the 
harmononiously tinted walls and ceilings; from beautiful decorations consisting of picturea , 
casts and plants, quickens and purifies the taste. Such beauty of surroundings has a 
subtle, silent, ethical influence which is not so much seen as felt. " 

INTRODUCTION. 



The past twenty years has witnessed a marked advance in school archi- 
tecture in our larger towns and cities. In many country districts, as well, 
great care is taken in the construction, ventilation and lighting of the school- 
house; but in more cases where the smaller schoolhouse is to be erected, 
little effort is made to secure architectural beauty or improved methods of 
construction. Many country school boards do not secure plans and specifi- 
cations from an architect because of the expense involved. As a result, the 
new schoolhouse is likely to be built on the general pattern of the old one it 
displaces. 

The following pages have been prepared to assist country school boards in 
the important work of schoolhouse construction. A number of cuts are 
shown. A low price for complete plans and specifications of each, including 
the blue prints, can be secured from the architects. For information, the 
county superintendent should be consulted. 

I can not urge too strongly the need of an enlightened and liberal policy 
in schoolhouse construction to the end that the schoolhouse be attractive in 
appearance and scientifically constructed. It may require a few dollars 
more to secure such a schoolhouse, but it shonld be remembered that the 
district is building for half a century at least, and only the best should be 
considered. The schoolhouse with its surroundings should be the most 
attractive place in the district, in which every child and every patron will 
take pride. And the schoolroom should not only be inviting, but it should 
be so ventilated, lighted and heated that the physical health and mental 
energy of the children shall not be impaired. 



RURAL SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE, 



(The articles on "School Site," "School Building" and "Ventilation" were prepared 
by Mr. W. H. Gemmill, Superintendent of Dallas Center Schools. ) 

THE SCHOOL SITE. 

In selecting a site, the area of the lot, the elevation, the character of the 
soil, the drainage, the direction of the slope, and the central location, 
should be considered. No school ground should ever contain less than one 
acre, with a frontage of 180 feet and a depth of 240 feet. In the larger con- 



72 SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 

solidated district it should contain not less than two, and may very properly 
contain three acres. If possible it should be an elevated piece of ground, a 
small knoll, or a gentle slope, and the drainage should be away from the 
yard and house. The soil should be light, dry and porous. A sandy or 
gravelly subsoil affords the best drainage, while an eastern or a southern 
slope secures rapid evaporation. Under no circumstances should the stratum 
be clay impermeable to ground water. It is desirable that the schoolhouse 
should be located near the geographical center of the district, and the board 
should select the site with this in mind; but the site should be high and dry 
and the brightest and most beautiful spot near the center. Under no condi- 
tions should pleasant and wholesome surroundings be sacrificed if a better and 
more suitable site can be secured some little distance away. The additional 
distance in traveling will be labor well spent, if thereby, the pupils are 
placed in more beautiful and inspiring scenes. 

The house should be placed in front of the center with the play ground 
in the rear Where the house is heated by a furnace, the fuel supply should 
be stored in the basement. If there is no basement, a small building for 
fuel should be erected at the rear of the schoolhouse. 

SCHOOL BUILDING. 

The foundation walls of the schoolhouse should be brick or stone, and 
extend a little below ' 'frost line." The walls should be at least one foot in 
thickness, and extend about three feet above the surface. It is usually well 
to have a vertical air chamber; and if there is no basement suitable ventila- 
tors should be provided on each of the four sides so as to permit of thorough 
ventilation of the space between the surface and the floor during the summer 
months. Good shutters should be provided for these openings in order 
that the winter's cold may not affect the air within the room near to the 
floor. 

It would also be a step in the right direction if there were a basement 
under the entire building, partitioned into a furnace room, a work shop, and 
a kitchen. Adequate, but inexpensive tools for manual training can be 
bought for twenty-five ($25) dollars. Here the boys would learn to con- 
struct simple things in a scientific manner, and even supply the apparatus 
necessary for the school. A good stove and some kitchen utensils would be 
sufficient for the teaching of the simple principles of domestic economy. 
These are practical things, and by their introduction we are but meeting the 
crying demands of the hour. 

The basement should be about 8 feet high, and should be well supplied 
with cupboards, shelves, tables, etc. 

The house should be simple in construction, yet dignified in its adorn- 
ment, and devoid of all attempts to be elaborate in appearance," writes an 
architect. 

As a traveler passes through Iowa, he soon lean s that white is the dom- 
inating color of our schoolhouses. Why this simple color is used so generally , 
we do not know; but we are confident that a more attractive building may 
be secured at no increase in the cost if other colors were used. The following 
has been suggested: 

"Colonial style of light yellow with white trimmings makes an excellent combination 
at once pleasing to the eye. Also gray tints and darker trimmings, or light yellow with 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS, 73 

dark green trimmings are both beautiful and reasonable in price. Plain walls and 
green blinds make a picture both attractive and pleasing." 

VENTILATION. 

"The simplest and most efficient form of ventilation for rural schoolhouses is a cold air 
box from an opening in the foundation wall, under the floor, to a point immediately 
beneath the stove See Pig. 9, page 80 and Fig. 12, page 81. It should be as short and direct 
as possible. The fresh air conduit should be covered at both ends with coarse wire, and 
in the shaft screens placed so as to exclude the flies. The opening beneath the stove should 
be provided with a slide which may be completely closed when the room is swept." 

"The stove should be surrounded by a Russia iron jacket, fastened to the floor and 
extended 8 inches above the stove. By this means, fresh air is admitted into the room in 
any required volume, and passed near the stove in such a way as to be warmed before 
passing throughout the room. " 

The register opening into the ventilating flue, or chimney, should be 
about two feet square, and about two inches from the floor. 

Any schoolhouse provided with this simple appliance, will be reasonably 
well ventilated at all times when the stove is used for heating purposes. 
During the remainder of the year ventilation can be secured by opening the 
doors and windows. 

Tre chimney and ventilating flue should be built together. 

Many rural schoolhouses are now heated by furnaces, and when properly 
equipped the subject of ventilation ceases to be a complex problem. 

OUTHOUSES. 

For rural schools the outbuildings should be located in the rear of the 
lot and as widely separated as possible. They should be screened from ob- 
servation. A row of White Spruce or Red Cedar properly placed will make 
an effective screen in a few years and will add to the beauty of the place. 
In eastern Iowa, Arbor Vitse may also be used. The closets and urinals 
should be so constructed as to provide for the separation of pupils using 
them, and they should be provided with vent flues so arranged that all foul 
odors and air will be carried out below the breathing line. 

Inside walls and ceilings should be covered with matched boards and 
both the inside and outside should be thoroughly sand rainted to prevent 
markings. In each of the buildings one seat should be provided so low that 
young children may occupy it and still rest the feet on the floor. These 
buildings should be well built. They should be raised at least one foot 
above the ground and placed on substantial foundations. The vault should 
be of cement or brick and made water tight. It should extend one foot be- 
yond and in the rear of the building. The vault floor should slope toward 
the rear to facilitate cleaning, and the projection of the vault at the rear 
should be closed by a tightly fitting door secured by a lock. The contents 
of the vault should be frequently covered with dry earth, dry ashes or chlo- 
ride of lime, and the vault should be cleaned at least once a year and thor- 
oughly disinfected. 

WATER SUPPLY. 

Every school building should be supplied with pure water. 
The well should be sunk on high ground and every possible precaution 
used to prevent contaminating matter of any kind reaching the water sup- 



74 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



ply. If the well is of the ordinary type, the upper three feet should be built 
of hard brick laid in cement; and the top be securely covered. The water 
that has stood in the well through the long summer vacation should be 
pumped out a day or two before the school opens in the fall, 

LIGHTING. 

The schoolroom should be lighted by windows placed in the rear and 
side walls. Such windows should contain glass surface of not less tha i 
one-fifth of the floor space of the room and all desks and seats should be so 
arranged that the windows will be on the left and in the rear of the pupils. 
The room should be of sufficient size to allow not less than fifteen feet of 
floor space and not less than 180 feet of air space for each pupil. 

SKATING. 

In schools where two or more sizes of school desks are required, each 
separate row should contain desks of a uniform size. The prevalent custom 
in country schools of havi a g four or five sizes of desks in each row— the 
small ones in front and gradually increasing in size to the rear — can not be 
too strongly condemned. Under such an arraagement either the desk or 
the seat will be too high. If one fits the pupil the other will not. The 
physical welfare of the child requires an arrangement of desks in ungraded 
schools as shown in figure 9. 

Single desks should be used and in the one room country school five sizes 
are usually required, as follows: 

Single Desks. 



Size. 


Height of 
Seat. 


Width of 
Top. 


Length. 


Floor Space. 


Age Accom- 
modated. 


B 
C 
D 

E 

F 


15 Inches 
14 inches 
13 inches 
12 inches 
11 inches 


15 inches 
14 inches 
13 inches 
12 inches 
12 inches 


24 inches 
21 inches 
21 inches 
18 inches 
18 inches 


31 inches 
27 inches 
27 inches 
26 inches 
26 inches 


17 to 20 
13 to 17 
10 to 13 

7 to 10 
5 to 7 



In placing the desks the following rule should be strictly followed: 

For first primary pupils (size F desk) place the edge of the desk next to 
and in front of the child 9 inches from the back of the seat in which he is 
seated. For size E desks this distance should be 10 inches; for size D, 11 
inches; size C, 12 inches, and size B, 13 inches. 

BLACKBOARD. 

The blackboard should be three feet six inches wide. Slate is recom- 
mended. It will cost more at the outset, but since no repairs will ever be 
required it is the cheapest in the long run. In ungraded schools the bottom 
of the blackboard should be two feet six inches from the floor. If the room 
is to be used exclusively for primary pupils, the bottom of the blackboard 
should be two feet from the floor, and if exclusively for advanced grades, it 
should be three feet from the floor. The blackboard should extend entirely 
around the room, except in the spaces occupied by the doors and windows. 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



75 




Fig. 



1. The Underwood School Building. Built and furnished at a cost of a little less 
than .$5, 000. For floor plans of this Building see figures 2, 4 and 6. 



76 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



inr 



^ 



JliL 



II 






-^t 



~gn- 



□I 



e 



T^sr 



ii 



foundition Plan 



^ 



Fig. 2. 



,V-- 




Fig 3. A two room sehoolhouse; convenient and inexpensive. For floor plan 

see figure 5. 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



77 




Fig. 4. 



r 



F 



-ea X30 



T 






ClOhK ROOM 



HALL ^ 



JZi} X ^ O 



PORCH 



Fig. 5. 



ClOAK ROOM. I o 



3r° 



78 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



1=^1 -r- 




ASSEMBLY ROOM 




HALL 



^ S 







-' I — '. 1^=^ 



I— I 



SECOND FLOOR PLAN 
Pig. 6. 




Fig. 7. One room schoolhouse so constructed that an additional room can be 
added when required. For floor plan see figure 10. 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



79 




Fig. 8. A model one i-oom country schoolhouse erected in district No. cf, Franklin 
Township, Monona County at a cost of about $800. For floor plan see figure 9. 



80 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 




FIG. 9 

Flooe Plan 



Fig. 9. The letters B. C. D. E. and F. refer to the size of desks in different rows. 



il 

ll 

II 

|| 

ll 

|l 

1 1 plari showinff 

jj ^6-,kL 

ll 

il 

i! ^ 

ii 



— I' 



T E. b. 



School 



POECH. 



"C7 



© 

■BE 



FIG 10 

fldoe Plan. 



Fig. 10. 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 



81 




Fig 11 "Direct Radiation"— and Waste. The "comraonstove" has had its day. 
Great loss of heat can be avoided by jacketing the stove and controlling the 
radiation. The air will then pass in the circuit indicated by the arrows in the 
figure below. 




Fig. 12. "Indirect Radlation"-and Economy. A jacketed heater or ordinary 
stove with sheet iron ' 'jacket" will work on the plan sketched in figure 12. The 
jacket should fit down to the fioor in case the fresh air supply is brought from 
outside, to enter a register beneath the stove. Where no fresh air box is pro- 
vided and the supply is drawn from outside through seams in fioor, door and 
windows, the jacket may extend to within 6 inches of the floor. In either case, 
it should extend six inches above the top of the stove. A jacket costs from 
|4.C0to$7.00, depending on size, etc., and is open at the top to allow the air as 
it becomes heated to rise and spread evenly over the room. As it becomes 
foul it also cooU. aad becoming thereby heavier, settles, and passes through 
register openings in the base board to the foot of the flue, then up and out at 
the side of the smoke flue. This is the only rational application of stove-heati n g 
in public buildings. 
6 



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